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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26740756">Whumptober shamelessly abused to world-build Louie_verse</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louie_writes/pseuds/Louie_writes'>Louie_writes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Works</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bone Breaking, Child Abuse, Chronic Pain, Drug Use, F/M, Impaled, In a way, Kidnapping, M/M, Poisoning, Sexual Content, blind folded, but w/e, dumb people not taking serious situations seriously becuase that is whackass, electricution, held at gun point, i love that tag but never got ot use it bc i am a perfectionist, me not taking whumptober seriously, no beta we die like men, on screen death, one sided pining, sensory depriviation, super powers, though i would not be certain who the loser is here</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:49:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>25,438</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26740756</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louie_writes/pseuds/Louie_writes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The press? Police? Arts and politics?</p><p>Small slices of a grander universe, slowly developing as whumtoper moves on. Characters and secrets and intrigue. Pain and resolve and lots and lots of history.</p><p>But consequently, we will see.</p><p> </p><p>Whumptober and its threats will only barely be taken seriously here</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Creative Chaos Discord Recs</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Let‘s hang out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Waking uo restrained/ Shackled/ Hanging</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„I pick truth.“<br/><br/>“Okay, tell us what you kept so secret in your locker all of high school.“<br/><br/>“I pick dare.“<br/><br/>“Oh come on, that was seven years ago, it can‘t POSSIBLY be this spicy!“<br/><br/>“CAN YOU GUYS STOP PRETENDING LIKE WE AREN‘T FUCKING IMPRISONED?!“<br/><br/>Caero and Lux looked at Victor, their strong and unshakable leader, their solid rock in uncertain waters, braincell of their group, the image after which they‘d mold themselves.<br/><br/>Chained up and locked in a dungeon, just the same as them.<br/><br/>“I dare you to tell us what was in your high school locker.“<br/><br/>“Oh come on!“</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. In the hands of the enemy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>„Pick who dies“/ Collars/ Kidnapped</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It‘S october 2nd SOMEWHERE so i can leagylly post this</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Pick who dies,“ the kidnapper said, making cold shivers run down Saiya‘s spine.<br/><br/>“P—please,“ Saiya urged, mainly to stall for time.<br/><br/>On the screens in front of him he could see his siblings and his dads. Saiya was still new to this whole ‚kid of famous person‘ thing, but from the others he knew what this whole spiel was about, and he was certain that with enough time, he could stir this game in his favour.<br/><br/>Pick a favourite family member was the prompt. Or rather, the least favourite, which would be the one the kidnapper would kill via the remote in his hand, and Saiya would get to watch the spectacle on screen.<br/><br/>It was a sick game.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The kidnapper next to him visibly struggled to breathe. At least these people not doing their homework would work in Saiya‘s favour here.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Perks of being new to the family.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„C—can I get a few more minutes?“ Saiya asked, to stall time again.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The nerves in his voice was real, surging through his bones. It was only the third time he was kidnapped, and his entire game plan leaned on time and his own kidnappers stupidity.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Tic tock,“ the kidnapper said, sounding genuinely frightful and stirring Saiya‘s nerves, but he also had visibly increasing trouble to breathe, which was good.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">His dad would probably take offence to someone not only kidnapping him and threatening his family, but then also being dumb enough to stay close to a kidnapee that was hard to breathe around.<br/><br/>“W—what about my dad?“<br/><br/>“Which one?“<br/><br/>“...“<br/><br/>“SPEAK UP RUNT!!“ With the loss of patience, the kidnapper took Saiya by the collar, and ripped him out of the constraints, it hurt in the moment, but it would be beneficial in the long term.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„I said I am not sure,“ Saiya whispered into the kidnapper‘s face, who let his collar go and leaned over, leaning onto his knees in an attempt to stay upright.<br/><br/>Saiya wanted to back away from the man, but he decided to stay close just a little longer.<br/><br/>“I don‘t think you‘d want me to talk much, in all honesty,“ he said to the man, who desperately tried not to throw up. „I love my family quite a lot, and I am very grateful that they took me in, so I would do anything for them.“ The man sank to his knees, and Saiya chose to back away, knowing what would come now.<br/><br/>Saiya stayed just long enough to watch the man hurl, which he took as a que to leave the warehouse and try to find a way home.<br/><br/>He could still hear the man throw his guts up as he closed the exit door behind him.<br/><br/>Damn kidnappers should not mess with people made of cyanide.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. My Way or the High Way</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Manhandled/ Forced to theri knees/ Held at gun point</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p2">
  <span class="s2">Lux looked down the business end of a gun barrel and knew he was fucked.<br/><br/>He may be here to fucking die and not get out in once piece but he also knew that when bad guys want shit from you, you are not to give it to them under any circumstances and instead make their lives hell and make them regret ever having taken you in, even if it were the last thing you‘d do.<br/><br/>So eh, he did what he did best and most annoyingly.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s2">„Oh ~my~, that‘s one hell of a weapon in your hand, what size caliber your holding?“<br/><br/>He was hit harshly across the face with the gun.<br/><br/>“Sh—shut it!“ The person holding the gun with an uncertain expression said.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s2">At least this mean he wasn‘t trigger happy.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s2">„Playing rough? Kinky, I like it~“<br/><br/>Another hit across the face.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s2">„I told you to shut it!“<br/><br/>“But I thought you needed me to speak up so you‘d have info to give to daddy?“<br/><br/>“He’s— not—„<br/><br/>“Your daddy, okay, boss then. Same difference, I would know.“<br/><br/>Another hit across the face.<br/><br/>“Get on your fucking knees or I‘ll kill you! I swear to god I‘ll kill you!!“</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s2">Lux got onto his knees obediently. The gun that was held in his face was shaking in uncertainty, the person at the other end of it defenitely new to the whole killing people business.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s2">Lux tipped his head back, opened his mouth, and rolled his tongue out.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s2">„What the FUCK are you doing?!“ The kid almost screamed in confusion. Lux almost felt pity for him, but instead he just looked at him in fake innocence.<br/><br/>“Well I mean you got me on my knees already and you want me to shut up and the most effective way to do so is to open your pants and—„<br/><br/>The gun was harshly pushed into Lux‘ mouth. „SHUT THE FUCK UP! OR I SWEAR TO GOD I‘LL FUCKING LOSE MYSELF! SHUT THE FUCK UP!!“<br/><br/>Lux made big doe eyes at the kid, close to tears and shaking. He was already weighing up his options if sucking on the gun the way he would on a... popsicle would do him any favours or only harm here when the door to their storage hall was banged open.<br/><br/>The loud noise made the gun in Lux‘ mouth twitch.<br/><br/>A tied-up body was thrown in with them, and the person to do so looked at Lux kneeling on the ground, hands tied behind his back and gun in his mouth, and the person assigned to get info out of him holding onto said deeply buried gun with shaking hands and tears in his eyes.<br/><br/>“What the shit, are you fucking stupid, green ears?!“ The new man yelled. „You are supposed to hurt him, not fucking kill him! Dead he‘s fucking useless to us, and you don‘t wanna explain that shit to the fucking boss!!“<br/><br/>“Yes!“ The kid yelled, but still uncertain, and he pulled the gun out of Lux‘ mouth quite harshly.<br/><br/>The door was closed again and the kid was alone with Lux, looking at his gun in uncertainty.<br/><br/>“Need help?“ Lux said.<br/><br/>“Don‘t fuck with me!“ The kid yelled, pulling Lux up by the throat. Ha, idiot hasn‘t done his homework.</span>
  <span class="s1">
    <br/>
  </span>
</p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s2">„H—harder, daddy,“ Lux wheezed.</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2"><span class="s2">„Huh?!“ The kid exclaimed, startled.</span><br/><br/>“No really,“ Lux wheezed out, „you need to work on your death grip,“ and with that he fried the fuck out of the green eared kid.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Running out of Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Caged/ burried alife/ Collapsed building</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Another collapsed church, the third in a series of direct attacks. This one was also a home and school to orphans, so Victor deemed the attacker a particularly ugly kind of evil.<br/><br/>“23, 24, 2–, Oh no, we are missing one!“ One of the nun teachers went over all her children again, before turning to Victor in distress, „we are missing one of the kids, surely he must still be in the rubble!“<br/><br/>“I‘ll get him then,“ Victor assured, intend on doing his job.<br/><br/>“Wait,“ the nun urged, holding him back by his wrist. Maybe he should invest in some sleeves, „it could be dangerous.“<br/><br/>“Of course it will be, it is a collapsed building.“ Victor was tempted to rip his wrist out of her grip, but he also intended to treat the general public less harsh.</span>
</p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The nun shook her head. „No, it is dangerous because the missing child is Saiya. He has a cyanide body mutation, so you could take significant harm from touching him or staying too close to him, so watch out.“<br/><br/>Victor grunted in affirmation, and made off to the ruins.<br/><br/>—————<br/><br/>The church was truly levelled, it was devastating. Not only had the orphans and the nun‘s been ripped off their home and holy sanctuary, it was also a significant piece of history. Victor used his generalised anger about the state of things to chuck generalised rubble around with the fire fighters, looking for the last missing person.<br/><br/>Every stone, every pillar, every shattered glass every—<br/><br/>There was a knocking on wood.<br/><br/>It was silent, easily overheard by the general noise of things happening, but Victor could hear it.<br/></span>
</p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A voice too, a silent one, but calling out nonetheless.<br/><br/>It came from beneath him.</span>
</p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Obviously an old building like this would have a cellar, and obviously some dumb fuck would have the bad luck of being in said cellar right as there was attack on the building and generalised rubble and destruction would block the way to said cellar.<br/><br/>Victor moved everything that was beneath him until he revealed a wooden lid, presumably leading towards the mysterious cellar. The knocking and calls got louder too.<br/><br/>Victor opened the lid. A kid was in it, probably about ten years, no older than his own. He was shying away from the light, and big, purple eyes looked anxiously at him.<br/><br/>Victor reached his hand out. „Come.“<br/><br/>“I— I s—shouldn‘t, Sir,“ the frightened boy spoke, „I c—could be harming you w—with my skin.“<br/><br/>Something delicate broke inside of Victor, as he watched this frighten little boy, nearly buried alive, considering a stranger’s health and safety over his own newly acquired freedom.<br/><br/>“I got thick gloves for a reason,“ Victor said instead, holding his hand out still. The boy took the hand hesitantly, as if he expected Victor to run away, screaming in pain, if they so much as touched.<br/><br/>The boy stepped out into the light, and Victor gave the fire fighter a signal that he got the last missing person.<br/><br/>The tiny hand shook in fear, and gripped his tightly, and Victor almost considered not letting go.<br/><br/>“Saiya, you are alright, we were so worried!“ The nun from before called out, running towards them, but stopping mid track.<br/><br/>A save distance away from the cyanide, presumably.<br/><br/>Victor admitted that the air around him got harder to breathe, but he would not let go of this child until he would be save and secure in waiting arms.<br/><br/>“Everything is secure at our end, how are you guys doing?“ Fellow guardian Red Rampage, and Victor’s husband said, running towards them as well.<br/><br/>“We got all the civilans secured.“<br/><br/>Rampage looked in confusion at his husband, and the strange child he was still holding by the hand.<br/><br/>“Thank you for saving me, Sir,“ the boy said, slipping his hand out of Victors grip, „I am back with my class now, so I am alright.“ He bowed politely to Victor, and also to Rampage, because he was sweet like that apparently.<br/><br/>“I am so glad we have him back,“ the nun said, looking at where the kid joined his class, but keeping his save distance, „he is a really sweet boy, a true sunshine. It is too bad about his mutation.“<br/><br/>“What‘s the issue with him?“ Rampage asked, looking at where the kids were exchanging stories about what they found the most terrifying about the whole dilemma.<br/><br/>“His whole body is a cyanide mutation,“ the nun explained, „he bleeds it, he sweats it, he breathes it. Touching his skin will give you a nasty rash, and staying near him will make breathing heard.“ She leaned closer to them, talking in a lower voice. „He caused some collateral damage or another. Save to say he learned to keep his distance the hard way.“<br/><br/>“Poor boy,“ Rampage said with a soft voice, the nun nodded in agreement.<br/><br/>Victor didn‘t have to turn around to know his husband was wearing a kicked puppy dog face, but he sure would always blame that exact face for what he chose to do next.<br/><br/>“Is the boy up for adoption?“ He asked the nun.<br/><br/>“Would you like to adopt him?“ She asked startled.<br/><br/>“It would be our pleasure,“ he responded.</span>
</p>
<p class="p1"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. „Where do you think you‘re going?“</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>On the run/ failed escape/ rescue</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Rei just kept running and running.<br/><br/>The hands tied behind her back messed with her balance, but she just kept on until she‘d find an exit. What the fuck kinda house was this? It seemed to only have rooms and no windows or exits or anything. Stalkers were getting weird.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Where do you think you‘re going?“ The voice was meek and meager, nothing impressive in the slightest, but despite that it let a cold shiver run through Rei‘s body.<br/><br/>She turned around.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The man matched the voice. He was even smaller than Rei, and the hot tea in his hand was fogging up his glasses.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Rei could feel a slight tinge of disappointment, the last guy had been a BEAST, truly intimidating, the sort of guy you‘d warn your friends about stalking you and they‘d feel pity. All Rei could really do was feel pity for this man for never getting a real hobby.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Princess, would not not much rather go back to bed?“<br/></span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Fuck off!“<br/></span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Okay, she knew that she was still trained enough to kick the tea out of his hand right into his ugly face if need be. She‘d just back away as much as she could and—</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He collapsed.<br/><br/>Huh?<br/><br/>Wild blue hair and bright eyes popped out from a door frame next to the collapsed body of her kidnapper.<br/><br/>“Heya!“ Lux cheered.<br/><br/>“Oh thank god, you guys,“ Rei sighed as she sank to the ground, fear and exhaustion catching up with her.<br/><br/>“Another stalker?“ Victor asked, approaching from behind the fallen figure. Rei nodded, Victor kicked him in the rips once, not getting a reaction, then he looked at Rei again. „It took way too fucking long to find you, we‘re gonna have to microchip you one of these days.“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Rei laughed, from way deep in her frighted body.</span><br/><br/>“Yeah, I guess we may.“ </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Please...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Get it out/ no more/ stop please</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Take it out! Take it out! Take it out! Take it out!“<br/><br/>Caero ran over to Lux‘ distessed voice. The other sat on the ground, screaming into the sky and hands hovering over his leg which was... oh that wasn‘t good. A metal rod had pierced through Lux‘ leg, looking all sorts of bad news. Caero squatted down in front of his friend.<br/><br/>“Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, we got this, we got this.“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Don‘t lie to me, Caero,“ Lux whined with tears in his eyes, „am I going to lose my leg? Am I going to die?!“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Caero stopped.<br/><br/>“What? No.“ He out a hand on Lux‘ leg, and the other on the metal rod.<br/><br/>“No! No! No! No! No! Stop it!“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Caero tried with all his might to not get angry at his friend for making things difficult. This was a big injury and must hurt a lot and getting angry at him wouldn‘t help anything.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Listen, we‘re gonna have to take this out so I can patch you up. So if you‘d just look away for a second—„<br/><br/>“What? No! Under no cirumstances! I‘ll bleed to death and—„<br/><br/>“Oh look, there is Rei.“<br/><br/>“Whe— </span>
  <span class="s2"><strong>AH F— MOTHER OF FUCKETY FUCK— FUCK</strong>!</span>
  <span class="s1">“<br/><br/>“There, not so bad.“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">„FUCK YOU!“</span><br/><br/>“You‘re welcome. And now hold still, this may sting.“</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. „I‘ve got you“</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Support/ Care taking/ Enermy to care taker</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I‘ll go have vacat at the end of the week so i am posting ahead</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Glynn was woken up by the ground under him moving rhythmically.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He tried to move his body or open his eyes to find out more clearly what was going on, but he felt like he had been run over by a train and tired enough for 500 years of sleep.<br/><br/>A grunt from beneath him, he was being adjusted.<br/><br/>Someone was carrying him on their back.<br/><br/>Glynn moved as much he could, adjusting so as to get a peak at the person carrying him.<br/><br/>He got a whiff of their smell. They smelled AMAZING!<br/><br/>“Vitya?“ Glynn mumbled, actually sitting up now.<br/><br/>“Don‘t make too much of a fuss up there, Dimwit, I can and will drop your sorry ass and leave you to die if prompted.“<br/><br/>Definitively, his... acquaintance, Vitya!<br/><br/>“You... saved me...“ Glynn observed, heart beating noticably fast.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Yeah no shit, that‘s my job, but don‘t get used to it if you‘re just gonna be annoying about it. Go back to sleep, maybe you‘ll finally fucking die.“<br/></span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Glynn wanted to prod more, find out what ahppened, and how Vitya had found him. But exhaustion took over his impulse control. Better is, Vitya WOULD let his beaten and dying body in the middle of the street at the end of the world and not even care about it.</span><br/><br/>So Glynn decided to let himself fall onto his saviours back, nuzzling his nose into the other‘s neck, enjoying this while he still could. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. „Where did everybody go?“</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Don‘t say goodbye/ Abandoned/ Isolation</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Okay, we need someone to go in, someone small.“<br/><br/>Theo immediately backed away, easily the most heavily built of the group.<br/><br/>All eyes fell on Caero, who held his hands up defensively and backed away as well.<br/><br/>“Listen guys, I would do it, but you said small and not skinny, and I‘m not gonna fit in the box at the end.“<br/><br/>Which was... a good point, and Caero had risked his neck often enough to get away scots free here.<br/><br/>Which left Victor and Lux.<br/><br/>“I‘ll do it,“ Victor said immediately, leading by example as always.<br/><br/>“No,“ Lux sighed, despite himself, „I‘ll go, I can‘t risk your kids going fatherless.“<br/><br/>Victor narrowed his eyes at him. „I can do it.“<br/><br/>“And so can I,“ Lux countered, to spite Victor. They stared at each other for a long moment, willing the other to back down.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Lux challengeing stare eventually evolved into a teasing one.<br/><br/>“I mean, I haven‘t quite bulked up as much as you have,“ he jabbed his elbow into Victors ribs playfully, „there gotta be a some benefits to not being the most ripped person here.“ The laugh sounded hollow in his ears, and Victor looked way too serious at him.<br/><br/>Lux sighed again to break the discomfort, „listen, give me the key,“ he snatched the key from Victors hand, „and let me go into Shroedinger’s ventilation system.“ Without waiting for an answer he ducked down and squeezed himself in, he turned around though, one last time, „tell Rei—„<br/><br/>“No goodbyes,“ Victor pressed, arms crossed and eyes hard, „you are going in, do you job, and get back out, got that?“<br/><br/>“Aye sir!“ Lux cheered, genuinely this time. Delighted to be reminded why he would follow this damn asshole into hell. And had done so before.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Victor threw a face mask at him, same shade of orange as his suit. </span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„If it‘s cynide proof it should keep whatever the fuck is fogging up the ventilation out as well.“<br/><br/>Lux put the mask on, listening to Caero ask ‚do you always carry those around?‘ and Victor respond with ‚obviously‘.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He honestly... felt ready. „alright then,“ he said, saluting the troupe, „see ya in a bit, Vitya.“<br/><br/>“Don‘t fucking die.“<br/><br/>“Aye Sir.“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Lux shuffled further into the shaft, and closed the lid behind him.<br/><br/>It was dark.<br/><br/>And it smelled odd.<br/><br/>He could hear loud machinations happing around him, and only barely heard his friend mumble outside.<br/><br/>He shuffled further in, walls pressing into his sides, until he found the next lid.<br/><br/>There should be four more lids... or maybe doors, depending on defenition, to get through. He had to keep right mostly, but after the third right he‘d have to take a left.<br/><br/>He closed the lid behind him with his feet.<br/><br/>Or was it after the fourth right?<br/><br/>The noise got louder, and the smell got worse.<br/><br/>He shuffelled forwards, just trying to get this over with.<br/><br/>There was a wall.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He felt it up, since he could not see anything. It wasn‘t one of those lid-doors, so it must be a cross way. He shuffled right.<br/><br/>He touched something slimy with his left hand and regreted having having been brought to life. God, he should really invest in some gloves for his suit. Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew.<br/><br/>Another wall. Not a lid, he had checked, but a wall. He shuffled right.<br/><br/>The machanic sounds around him where kinda rythmic, and sort of nice, but the smell was starting to sting in his nose. Ew.<br/><br/>A lid. He opened it, shuffled through, and closed that one as well.<br/><br/>The shaft did left turn. He double checked, no way to go front, and no way to go right. Okay.<br/><br/>Another lid, no problem.<br/></span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Another left turn. Hm.<br/><br/>He felt like he had been shuffling for ages. His arms hurt and things got really boring.<br/><br/>Another lid to shuffle through.<br/><br/>The noise of machinery got louder, the smell stronger. He was getting a head ache, and none of his surroundings were helping. It was getting hard to breathe.<br/><br/>Another lid. A right turn.<br/><br/>Another lid. A right turn.<br/><br/>Another lid, absolute silence.<br/><br/>Not that Lux minded the absolute silence per se, after all that noise it was honestly quite welcome, but it was odd, and he felt like he had done something wrong.<br/><br/>How many right turns had he‘s had? How many left? Where was he supposed to be?<br/><br/>He shuffeled on, hoping that best case scenario he would find another exit.<br/><br/>An incredibly loud sound of metal slowly but with intend scratching again metal echoed through the shaft, and drove through Lux‘ entire body into his bones.<br/><br/>Fuck, he hated that noise!<br/><br/>Another lid, there was machination noises behind that again. Good news at least.<br/><br/>He closed the lid behind himself.<br/></span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The noise around him was louder than before, a different rhythm, a more frantic one.<br/><br/>The stinging smell made his nose run, he could feel his head ache becoming more prevalent, his eyes watered, and he still couldn‘t see.<br/><br/>Another lid, a right turn.<br/><br/>Another lid, a right turn.<br/><br/>Another lid, and three ways to go.<br/><br/>And Lux had no freaking idea which direction to take.<br/><br/>He couldn‘t locate the sound, he couldn‘t see any light, he couldn‘t concentrate through the pain and the noise.<br/><br/>He wasn‘t smart enough to figure this out.<br/><br/>He wasn‘t lucky enough to guess.<br/><br/>Fuck what would he do?<br/><br/>What would Victor do?<br/><br/>Fuck he couldn‘t concentrate with machination noise getting louder and faster, he couldn‘t concentrate on the little Victor noise at the back of his head that always told him not to do certain dumb things.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Fuck, fuck fuck fuck, fuck—<br/><br/>He went right. He had to go SOME way.<br/><br/>There was a wall.<br/><br/>An honest to god wall, just a dead end. What?<br/><br/>He could feel the noise of the machinations outside vibrating against the metal touching him.<br/><br/>He shuffled backwards, which his arms were grateful about, since it was a different movement at the very least.<br/><br/>He decided to take the forwards route.<br/><br/>Another crossing that went in all three directions. He went forwards.<br/><br/>Another crossing that went in all three directions, he went forwards.<br/><br/>Another crossing that went in all three directions, he went forwards.<br/><br/>Something about this shaft was odd. He could not concentrate on what it was, but it was odd. Something about it...<br/><br/>Another crossing that went in all three directions, he went left.<br/><br/>Suddenly the metal that was pressing against his arms left, and he could vaguely see something in front of him.<br/><br/>A machine. Run so hot it was vaguely visible in the darkeness. It was loud and it was soooooo, so beautiful, Lux could have kissed it!<br/><br/>He shuffled in the shaft enough to get to his utility belt, getting the key and his phone out, to get some light.<br/><br/>8% battery. So maybe this was what Victor had meant with not fucking around on the phone too much in case you‘d need it for an emergency.<br/><br/>He turned the flashlight on like how Victor had adviced in the innitial briefing and looked around the beautiful machine for something that could count as a keyhole.<br/><br/>The machine was pumping, breathing even, if you may. It exhibited some sort of steam that made it hard to see, even with the flashlight on. The steam stung in his eyes which were already struggling with the harsh light of the flashlight reflecting of the steam and metal back into his eyes that had been in the darkenss for who knows how long. He was tearing up with all the stress on his retinas.<br/><br/>His body started to kramp and he feared the heachache being strong enough to last forever and the arm holding the key was getting unstead and—<br/><br/>There was the keyhole, that was defenitely the keyhole, heck yeah!<br/><br/>He stuck the key in, it didn‘t fit.<br/><br/>Okay maybe that was just his shaking arms and his lacking concentration and everything happening at once and dear god please don‘t let there be more than one machine and this one was actually innocent— the key fit.<br/><br/>He turned it.<br/><br/>Nothing happened.<br/><br/>“Fuck,“ Lux cursed, throat feeling coarse and abused.<br/><br/>He twisted it in the other direction but it acutally only went quater of a circle so if he had to twist it it would twist his way only.<br/><br/>Maybe there was a button or a lever—<br/><br/>There it was, big and red, thank fuck.<br/><br/>The machine stopped.<br/><br/>It wound down and everthing, eventually it got entirely silent, an the steam wasn‘t coming out of it either.<br/><br/>Lux could have cheered loudly with how elated he was, but the space he was in was way too small and he could hurt himself so nah, he‘d leave that for later. The lights went off, and he could only see his phone‘s logo illuminating as a goodbye way of saying ‚fuck you for not charging me‘.<br/><br/>Now he had to get back.<br/><br/>Oh fuck he had to get back, which way did he come again?<br/><br/>No-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho. It was all good, he was just going to shuffle backwards and then...<br/><br/>Keep straight for a long time and then keep left but don‘t forget to also go right one time.<br/><br/>Or was it twice?<br/><br/>The fact that the walls around him were silent now helped, but the stench of whatever gas or whatever he had turned off still burned his nose and melted his brain away.<br/><br/>There was a curve where he didn‘t expect it to be, and there was whole new lid/ crossway combination he has not encountered before, and this way felt like he was was running in circles—<br/><br/>Muffled voices, good, that had to be his friends! He almost made it!</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He shuffled in a speed he could NOT have mustered before until he found a lid that definitely had light on the other side oh he would be out soon he would be out soon—<br/><br/>Behind the lid was a long way down.<br/><br/>Well, he was definitely incredibly grateful to... well see natural light again and all that, but there was like, a significant way down from where he was, popping out from close to the ceiling.<br/><br/>Some people that looked like guards were walking away from him, talking in a language he did not speak, probably the reason he had heard voices before.<br/><br/>He weighed his options, crawling out of the shaft entirely, and falling like a rejected baby to earth because he couldn‘t hold onto anything here and his body was too cramped up to properly catch him, or go back inside the dark and tight ventilation system and try around to—<br/><br/>Okay he would get out here and if he broke every single bone he could just get them fixed he could deal with the pain he could deal with the pain.<br/><br/>He inched out of the exit, folding his body from his hips up againt the wall, legs still lying flat inside the shaft.<br/><br/>There was still a solid meter and a half between him and the ground.<br/><br/>If he could press one leg against the roof of the vent and squeeze the other leg out—<br/><br/>He fell, quit ungracefully.<br/><br/>It hurt but he hadn‘t broken anything, and all his muscles hurt anyways so he was honestly just glad to get out. He could have cheered, but the little Vitya at the back of his head was telling him to not be stupid, yelling louder than the pounding of his brain against his skull.<br/><br/>He got up and stretched. High on the adrenalin of not being in that god forsaken place anymore he looked around.<br/><br/>He had no fucking idea where he was.<br/><br/>Well he hadn‘t changed levels so as long as he didnt take stairs or elevators his team should be <em>somewhere</em> here.<br/><br/>He got walking.<br/><br/>He cleverly avoided some guards and nodded to a cleaning lady that glared at him like he had left her granddaughter with a child and in debt. He stopped to admire the view way into the abyss of traffic and the industry distict of the city and got a cup of water from the water dispenser.<br/><br/>He found his friends.<br/><br/>Obviously they were being absolute dumbasses that collectively stared at the vent he had gone into entirely ungarded. Three wholeas people and one of them the smartest person Lux has ever met but he had taken the braincell with him apparently and left it to die in that toxic vent.<br/><br/>He decided that if they weren‘t paying attention either way then he would use his seven years of sneaking up on Vitya experience for spook purposes to his convenience now and sneak behind them.<br/><br/>Honestly, not a single one.<br/><br/>Theo was usually more aware of his surroundings and Caero was usually not this reckless, and Vitya‘s usual brains were the biggest disappointment here.<br/><br/>He took a sip from his water, as he stepped behind them.<br/><br/>“Who ya‘ll looking for?“ He dodged the explosion aimed at his face through sheer muscle memory only.<br/><br/>“What the fuck fucking thundercloud how the fuck did you get out and why the fuck are you behind us?“<br/><br/>Lux shrugged at Victors questions, not entirely certain himself.<br/><br/>“I don‘t know, I must have taken a wrong turn on the way back, I got out... I‘m not quite certain where, but it was up high and I had to fall to the ground.“<br/><br/>“W— you got lost? But I got you the fastest route, you should have gotten in two minutes tops.“ Lux just shrugged.<br/><br/>“You were gone for... nearly 40 minutes.“ Theo observed, checking his phone.<br/><br/>“Where did you get water from?“ Caero asked.<br/><br/>“There is a water supender in two lefts and one right. Or maybe two rights... you have to walk through a door.“<br/><br/>Victor groaned passionately into his hands until he ran out of air.<br/><br/>“Alright dip shits, we need to get a move on before we lose out luck an someone finds us.“</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. For the greater Good</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Take me instead/ Run/ Ritual sacrifice</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  
</p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Rei had never been to a sky park before.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The normal parks deep down in the abyss of the city had been enough for her. The artificial sun light and the nonetheless natural green were familiar to her, and she had never once seen reason to think any less of them than she would of the sky parks, even now, that she lived so much closer to the surface.<br/><br/>But by all things holy, seeing the vast expanse of just... blue sky for the first time... sure was something.<br/><br/>So maybe she could see why the sun cult had kidnapped them as sacrifices.<br/><br/>Maybe.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She had been assured that she had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time, and that as long as she were to not make a fuss, nothing would happen to her. Utterly blind-sided by not being the target of a kidnapping for once she chose to play along for the time being.<br/><br/>But the person with her was Lux.<br/><br/>And he <em>HAD</em> been a target.<br/><br/><strong>THE</strong> target.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She watched his unmoving form as he was maneuvered onto what seemed to be a sacrificial table, his wrists were strapped into constraints and—<br/><br/>She couldn‘t do it.<br/><br/>Lux had saved her life so many uncountable times.<br/><br/>They had been friend since high school, aspiring to be heroes, and later guardians together, growing closer, becoming best friends with time, and if it hadn‘t been for him her music career would never had taken off, distracting her from her work as a guardian, and making her dedicate to being a full time idol.<br/><br/>And with every stalker and death threat and soul breaking contract her had been there for her, doing his job of guarding over her, over the people. And now he would die, for some crazy lunatics that had looked into natural sun light for too long.<br/><br/>And she had been trained to be a hero too damnit!<br/></span>
</p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Take me!“ She yelled as loud as she could. „Let him live, take me instead!“</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She had distracted the robed people, looking at her for a moment. Lux‘s head twitched on the table.<br/><br/><br/>“Take me! Take me! Take me! Take me—!“ She was intend on making a fuss until she would be heard, but lucky for her they listened easy.<br/><br/>“You certain about that?“ The robed person holding her back with an incredibly light voice, „you want to give your life for his?“<br/><br/>“Yes.“ She said, certainty in her voice and harsh determination in her eyes, as she tried to stare through that persons sun mask into his eyes way deep into his soul.<br/><br/>“WE HAVE A VOLUNTARY SACRIFICE!!!“ The person said, being met by cheers from the rest of the cult.<br/><br/>Lux was removed from the table, and Rei, in turn was strapped onto it.<br/><br/>She laid her head sideways, looking at the unmoving form of Lux, sacked against a few boxes which presumably held some sort of supplies.<br/><br/>As her feet were strapped onto the table as well and the cult around her started to silently chant in a language she recognised but could not place she thought of her last album.<br/><br/>Being a ritual sacrifice would do wonders for the sales, her manager would be rich. Presumably also devastated that she was dead, but a dead artist made a lot of money. Especially under such strange circumstances.<br/><br/>The album hadn‘t been selling that well anyways but that always happens when you try something new and her name was solidified enough in the music industry that—<br/><br/>She heard her name.<br/><br/>Very quietly, but distinct.<br/><br/>Lux was looking at her. She could barely tell from the distance, but they made eye contact, and his hand twitched.<br/><br/>The chanting around her got louder, and the person doing her binding was starting to chant against it. Holding a knife in some sort of red liquid, and running it over her body as if to follow a pre-determined shape.<br/><br/>The sky above them got darker. The blue of it was slowly but surely blocked out, and dark clouds began to cover the sky.<br/><br/>The chanting got more silent, underswelling, and the cultist by her side lifted the dagger high over their head, as if preparing for onslaught.<br/><br/>A loud rumble.<br/><br/>Everyone got quiet.<br/></span>
</p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The sky was entirely entrenched in darkness, thick thunderclouds hanging heavy over them. Rumbling.<br/></span>
</p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">There were murmurs from the crowds, in a more common language now, discussing the odd weather phenomenon, and want it meant for the ritual.<br/><br/>Thunder struck, Rei heard a few people scream, and she would be lying if she said she it hadn‘t shocked her as well.<br/><br/>Thunder struck again, and the cultist around her actually got scared enough to scatter. Among the general disarray and headless chicken running heavy rain started to fall, and wind stared to blow with intend.<br/><br/>Thunder struck again. Right in their park, and only narrowly missing some running people.<br/><br/>Rei looked around at all the people leaving, followed the thunder and tried to see through the rain.<br/><br/>She wasn‘t alone. The person by her side had never left.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">They said something that didn‘t sound particularly nice and lifted the blade again.<br/><br/>Thunder struck them.<br/><br/>Rei closed her eyes, trying to avoid the horrific sight, and leaned away from them as much as possible.<br/><br/>But all she could feel was light buzzing and shock, no worse than walking with wool socks over carpet.<br/><br/>She used her trait to snap herself out of ehr restraints, and ran with stumbling legs over to Lux‘ barely conscious form.<br/><br/>“Hey Floof Brain,“ she said with a soft voice, „let‘s get out of here.“ He mumbled something at her as she picked him up and carried him bridal style.<br/><br/>The cultist had left, and the thunder had died down. Only the dark clouds were left, emptying themselves all over the park in thick sheets of rain.<br/><br/>“That was you, wasn‘t it?“ Rei whispered, and she tried to find the nearest elevator down, somewhere dry.<br/><br/>“Couldn‘t let you die,“ he mumbled back, barely audible, and eyes closed.<br/><br/>Rei smiled at him, ever the guardian, a force to be reckonned with. If she had a hand free she would wiped a blue quirl out of his face, from where the heavy rain made his hair cling to his skin.<br/><br/>Rei managed to find and elevator, and decided to go five levels down, she ought to live </span> <span class="s2">somewhere</span> <span class="s1">here.<br/><br/>Black lighting shape stemming from Lux‘ roots bled into the light blue floof that was the rest fo his hair.<br/><br/>“You are one hell of a force to be reckoned with, mister Lux Susanowo,“ Rei said very silently, and maybe, just maybe, she lifted his body up enough to place an affectionate kiss on his forehead.<br/></span></p>
<p class="p1">
  
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. „They look so pretty when they bleed“</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Blood loss/ Internal bleeding/ Trail of blood</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It wasn‘t often that Stacy woke up in a cold and darkened room, restrained to some sort of contraption, but today sure was one of those days.<br/><br/>“Good morning, princess,“ a teasing voice called out of the darkness, „I already had some of your blood, but you are welcome to any food you find around.“<br/><br/>A jokester, apparently, as well as one of those blood horny people. Stacy noticed an odd and familiar feeling in her arm. She managed to move her head in such a way that she could have a look at it, there was a cut across her arm, and her blood was running out of it, presumably forming a pool somewhere on the ground already.<br/><br/>The darkness and general gloom as well as the blood drinking would suggest some sort of vampire aestehtic blood fetishist, but those tend to bite, so this person probably had some sort of blood eating related trait.<br/><br/>Well there just <em>had</em> been one of those on the news...<br/><br/>“Do I know you?“ Stacy asked.<br/><br/>“Name‘s the Cleanse,“ a dark silluette called from in front of her, but a save distance away from her, „I cleanse our broken society from its most terrible ideals, stopping the general public from salivating over spineless idols like you.“<br/><br/>Wait, that sounded familiar, her hunch had been right!<br/><br/>“You‘re that dude that Victor ripped into, what‘s it again?“<br/><br/>“Name‘s Cleanse—„<br/><br/>“He named a deodorant line after you when you went underground. What was your original name again? Something stupid uh... Stench, wasn‘t it?“</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„I said—„<br/><br/>„Ohhhhhhh, I remember, you said something about ‚stench of society‘ but Victor ripped into your aestehtic and you went into hiding and he named the deodorant line ‚stench remover‘ because of you and it‘s the only one he actually advertised as a personal hygiene product and not a flammable weapon and—„<br/><br/>“</span>
  <span class="s2"><strong>ENOUGH</strong>.</span>
  <span class="s1">“<br/><br/>Stacy shut up despite herself, and her entire body tensed. A blood control trait then. Neat.<br/><br/>“Say, you said you drank my blood, right?“ Talking was straining, but it wasn‘t impossible to speak.<br/><br/>“I— did...“<br/><br/>“How well does your trait work on drugs?“ From the strain in her voice she presumed he was weakened, she checked the control she had over her body, and then broke out her bounds. „I reckon,“ she said as she landed on the ground, „that you don‘t know that you are currently on Extacy,“ the high running through her body was AMAZING! It wasn’t often that she got to use her trait but she sure loved doing so.<br/><br/>Stench stuttered, backing away from her, and she could still feel the weak control he had over her body, which was amazing as well. Like him she was currently high on her own blood, unlike him she could control when she would be down from her trip an not suffer any lasting consequences.<br/><br/>“I reckon one thing you don‘t know about me is that I like to fight,“ she said, approaching him, and rolling her shoulder. She was a little stiff and the control he had over her was making things more difficult, but she was also high as balls, „my mate and I are signed up for local championships regularly, but we fight with masks and aliases so the fighting reputation doesn‘t stain our guardian reputation.“ </span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She could hear the sound of the Stench dude being backed up against a wall, she really hoped that he would fight her full force, being high on extacy as well.<br/><br/>“Legal fights are good and scratch the itch, but I really missed the freedom that comes with illegal underground fights like this,“ she swung her fist at his face and cheered as she felt the impact of hitting his bones.<br/><br/>Damn bastard was too shocked to fight back, but she noticed him spitting out blood from the punch.<br/><br/>“They look so pretty when they bleed~“ She said, as she lost herself on the energy of her own blood and went for another throw.</span>
</p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">
    
  </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I give you three guesses as to why her name is stacy</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Psych 101</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Defiance/ Struggling/ Crying</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">There were days when Victor Belona was sure of himself.<br/><br/>There was days when he felt proud and accomplished and like he had made a positive mark in this world.<br/><br/>And then there was days like this.<br/><br/>Days when he woke up in bed and knew, even before setting a single foot on his floor, that he was a failure.<br/><br/>He reflected on all his failures as a person, a husband, a father, a boss, a guardian.<br/><br/>He absorbed all the criticism he got from the press or by passers or family that wasn‘t fond of him or any bad word raised against him at all for any reason at any point.<br/><br/>He reflected on his world view and how it had made him an activist forcing change on his society and how terrible an idea that was and how he made everything worse.<br/><br/>He reflected on his actions as the boss of his own agency and how in over his head he was and how he had no control over his image or the image of his employees and friends and how terrible an influence that was on them.<br/><br/>He reflected on his friendship both with his most dearest and those he valued casually and how terrible he was at signalling them that he appreciated them.<br/><br/>He reflected on the relationship with his husband and how his own efforts in the relationship paled to the blinding light of Theodor Brava‘s all consuming love.<br/><br/>He reflected on his actions as a father, how he thought he could take on the task of child raising, two at once before getting a third, all adopted, all difficult cases for all their own reasons. How much he overestimated himself.<br/><br/>And how, more than anything, he knew none of this was true.<br/><br/>He knew in is conscious, deliberate brain, that none of it was true, that there was nothing but a neurotransmitter interruption in his brain that would not connect the endorphins to their proper destination. Meaning his worries were stupid.<br/><br/>That he was stupid for having them.<br/><br/>But that complaint did not stop him from worrying, it only made everything worse.<br/><br/>So he got out of bed.<br/><br/>Despite all the worries and the doubts in his brain he had learned, had trained to go to his husband with this, that his husband would help, with years of experience and all that.<br/><br/>So he rolled himself out of bed, blanket wrapped around him as a form of comfort, so he could trick his dumbass brain into thinking he hadn‘t actually left his nest of misery.<br/><br/>He skipped all his usual fresh make routines. He didn‘t get dressed, he didn‘t wash his face, and didn‘t brush teeth. He wanted to see his husband, he wanted to feel okay again.<br/><br/>Walking blanket monster that he was he slouched to the kitchen, where he found his loving and beautiful mountain of a sunshine emitting husband frying eggs and toast in pan, open lunch boxes next to him for the kids, colourful city light shining through the window behind him.<br/><br/>He was a sight to behold. Beautiful red hair reaching down to his hips, his face held free with a signature white headband.<br/><br/>He was amazing, so beautiful, so much better that Victor, so much more than he deserved.<br/><br/>He slouched over before he would shed actual tears over the his own insignificance in the shadow of this man‘s beauty.<br/><br/>He hugged his husband‘s broad frame from behind, burring his face between the other man‘s shoulder blades.<br/><br/>This was heaven.<br/><br/>“Good morning, Love,“ Victor grumbled in response, „slow morning?“ Victor didn‘t respond to that at all. It took a moment, „Ohhh, one of <em>those</em> days.“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Victor hugged his husbands back a little more, ravelling in how muscular he was, how sweet he was for frying food for their children to have lunch, how beautiful he was to put up with Victors pitiful ass.<br/><br/>He barely heard the sound of of the lunch boxes being closed, then Theo turned around in his arms.<br/><br/>“Hey sweetie,“ the gift of god said in an incredibly soft voice, „you know that I love you, right?“ Victor didn‘t respond. Theodor ran rough but gentle fingers over the sides of Victors face along his jaw to lift his face up by his chin.<br/><br/>“Victor Belona you are a force to be reckoned with. You are a good man and a wonderful husband, you are an inspiration to many and such a significant improvement on so many people‘s lives. I am so proud of you.“<br/><br/>Victor could actively feel himself shedding tears now. Theodor wiped them away with his thumbs and kissed his cheeks.<br/><br/>“I love that you were born with a death glare and look at kiddies like they personally insulted your family.“ A kiss in the cheek. „I love that you pretend that you hate Glynn‘s food but always try to guess how he puts his curry.“ A kiss on the other cheek, and Victor tried to defend himself, but the words still died in his throat, blocked by tears cramping him up. „I love that you are loud and demanding about your views and opinions no matter what they are.“ A kiss on the forehead, and Theo wiping the makeshift hood away.<br/><br/>Theo twirled him around a view times, like there were dancing to silent music, before continuing his ministrations.<br/><br/>“I love that you get into fights with our lawyer about how to properly organise paperwork.“ A kiss to the top of his head. „I love that you taught Lux to play the guitar so he could impress Rei but pretend to never do anything for us or selfless reasons.“ A kiss to his ear. „I love that you are an idealist to the core, and that your idealism infects other people, including all of us.“ A kiss to the other ear.<br/><br/>Another unexpected twirl, it forced a surprised giggle out of Victor, who was still crying like a whimp.<br/><br/>“I love that you actually went out and married me, and I love that I get to wake up to the sight of you next to me in my bed every day.“ A kiss on the nose.<br/><br/>“I love you so much,“ Victor said, ugly crying now, and holding onto his husband for dear life, whose bright grin got blurry in Victor‘s tears.<br/><br/>„GIVE THAT BACK YOU SON OF A BITCH I WILL CUT YOU UP IN YOUR SLEEP YOU PIECE OF SHIT!“<br/><br/>The loud screaming of Katsumi and Boom thundered though the downstairs story, albeit Boom was not screaming, and the loud trample of them running through the house burst Victor out of his emotionally tense bubble, he quickly wiped the tears out of his face before his kids would see the sorry state he was in.<br/><br/>“Boom, give your sister her friendship diary back, and come pick up your lunches, it‘s getting late.“ Victor laid his face against Theo‘s chest, feeling the rumble of the other‘s deep voice as he spoke.<br/><br/>Boom silently took the second half of the sandwich he had half eaten before and stuffed his lunch into his backpack, he nodded at his parents to notify his leaving, but made a confused face as he saw Victors presumably red shot eyes.<br/><br/>“Dad you look like utter shit, what the fuck happened to you?“ Katsumi said as she stuffed her own lunch into her backpack and kicked her brother in passing.<br/><br/>“You‘re a real fucking brat you know that?“ Victor laughed, eyes starting to feel wet again, then he pulled Katsumi into a tight hug and gave her a big kiss on the head.<br/><br/>“Dad, gross, don‘t go mushy on me,“ she complained, struggling out of the hold like a restrained cat, and not unlike Victor had done back in high school, when he had first gotten real friends that decided they got to be touchy with him.<br/><br/>‘Love you too,‘ she mumbled back though, and ran off as soon as possible.<br/><br/>Victor saw so much in this girl sometimes <em>he</em> wondered if she was actually adopted or not.<br/><br/>She had taken Saiya‘s lunch with her and gave it to him at the entry door, he waved to both his dads and left with his siblings for school.<br/><br/>Theo turned to his husband again.<br/><br/>“Need anymore love and encouramentment? Because I have way more up my sleeve.“<br/><br/>“You are an idiot and I love you so much,“ Victor said, pulling his grinning husband down to give him a proper kiss, one he derserved, one reserved for perfect, and absolutely wonderful husbands only. Those that lean over you and envelope you in their strong arms and make you feel like maybe you aren‘t an absolute failure, but a person deserving of love and affection.<br/><br/>A fun idea to entertain. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>„Torture“ is when you drown angst seekers in unconditional and unabashed fluff, yes?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. „I think I‘ve broken something“</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Broken down/ Broken bones/ Broken trust</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">To say that Lux Susanowo was hard to impress would be a dirty lie.<br/><br/>He took pride in his easily awed nature, close friend valued that they could show him something dear to them and he would rave about how amazing it was, more so than they themslves would. It was a great confidence boost for those who were uncetain of themselves and their passions, and he chose to see it as a punk like slap in the face of rant exlusionists that bitterly bitched on anything that wasn‘t dark and gritty. Sucks to live their hard to impress lives.<br/><br/>But there was few things that were anywere near as cool as working together with the hero and legend Kitsu.<br/><br/>Kitsu had a fox body mutation and a breaking trait and consequently named himself after the Kitsune, fox spirit. He was known for being a loose canon, generally not taking serious situation seriously, flirting relentlessly to throw people off their groove, and being annoyingly hard to deal with on purpose.<br/><br/>He was a young and aspiring hero when Lux had only just started learning for the job. He had looked up to him hard and copied all his cool characteristics to get on people‘s nerves with. Often teachers, bad guys, or Vitya.<br/><br/>And now they would be working together! Undercover! How cool!<br/><br/>Their job was to infiltrate a trafficking ring, whose agenda seemed to be much grander than the simple trafficking they were doing, which was why Kitsu had done this job for months already, and Lux was only now freshly added to the mix.<br/><br/>Kitsu was supposed to look out for Lux, still somewhat young and consequently inexpereinced in the guardian business, compared Kitsu his senior, and Lux, in turn, was supposed to give a third person opinion on Kitsu‘s mental state, seeing how much the undercover mission was messing with him.<br/><br/>Neither of them were supposed to start direct actions, since both their agencies wanted to have the full picture of the organisation before they would bust it consequently.<br/><br/>Lux had to restrain the vibrating of his body, with the amount of hype he was feeling, working with his idol.<br/><br/>The job was realitively easy, the organisation of the trafficking was done around him, and he wasn‘t expected to be involved by either the organisation nor his own agency, he was just added man power. His job was basically to sit down with Kitsu and have a drink with him.<br/><br/>Or several.<br/><br/>Since Kitsu seemed to have a liking in Lux and just kept ordering drinks for him and talking about life.<br/><br/>It was amazing, and the athmospehre was so cool and Lux had never felt more liek a TV star guardian you would see in a late night drama where all the gore was unsensored adn they got to say the bad words. Shit would go down soon, he would be about to leave for home having finished his contract and them WHAM shits would happen and there would be a shooting and drama amd blood loss and change or character and a lot of resulting paper work these shows never showed but who cares!<br/><br/>Kitsu talked about his angency and how little he knew about his family since he was given to a home quite early and in turn Lux, four drinks deep at this point, talked about his own agency and bachelor life and Vitya‘s kids that he had just adopted from differnt homes as well that were making his life hell but he was determined to give them a home and love bECAUSE they‘d have no other place to go and Lux lowkey died on the inside every time Kitsu laughed about one of the bothersome antics Vitya‘s brats had gotten up to.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„You wanna get out of here?“ Kitsu said in a low voice, and Lux would have lied if he said his heart wasn’t beating like crazy at the implication.<br/><br/>“S-sure,“ he stuttered with a weak voice.<br/><br/>The entirely relentelss flirting he had adopted had accidently made his sexuality somewhat... open.<br/><br/>He had never gone any further than playful flirts or stolen kisses but oh boy was he keen on getting FURTHER.<br/><br/>Kitsu lead him down a busy market street, greeting certain peole along the way, and Lux glanced at him excitedly out of the corner of his eye.<br/><br/>Kitsu was <em>incredily</em> attraktive, and if Lux hadn‘t questioned his interests before he would certainly use this opportunity to.<br/><br/>His lopsided grin was incredibly handsome and there was orange fox accents in the animalic ears that added to his hearing, but the tips of them and the rest of his hair wear pale blond.<br/><br/>Seeing the ears twitch as sounds around them made Lux want to touch them, play with them. Hopefully he would get an opportunity to.<br/><br/>They went to a less busy street, a darker place.<br/><br/>Less people, less audience, further aways from where people knew them. Where they could hear them.<br/><br/>Lux was getting increasingly more excited.<br/><br/>A dead end. It smelled terribly and there was trash all around them. It was just deep enough to not get any street light into it, and the presumably offices or something around them were not alight this late at night.<br/><br/>Kitsu pushed Lux against the dead end wall, pressing his arm against Lux‘ chest, and he was embarrassed to admit he let out a little gasp of arousal at the action. Down and dirty.<br/><br/>“I don‘t know what your fucking deal here is, but I bet you’re some new recruit from my agency.“<br/><br/>What?<br/><br/>“Listen, I don‘t take pests like you on. You go back to that damn place and tell them everything is fine here and cared for, alrighty?“ Lux didn‘t answer, too shocked by the turn of events. „Understood?“ His free hand grabbed Lux‘s arm, and that‘s when Lux remembered Kitsu‘s trait.<br/><br/>Back when Guardians have been called Heroes, and had had more freedom on how to deal with their opponents, Kitsu had used his breaking trait to break people‘s bones.<br/><br/>Not unlike how he seemed to threaten to do to Lux.<br/><br/>Kitsu‘s grip tightened on Lux‘ arm, and he could feel cold sweat running down his back as he realised the impact of the situation.<br/><br/>“If you are a smart little lamp you‘ll go back to the damn agency at the end of their contract and tell them everything is fine and enjoy the free booze and basically themed week off like everyone else.“<br/><br/>Lux held strong eyes contact with Kitsu, not saying a word.<br/><br/>It was true what they said about idols disappointing you face to face, the perfect image you have of them in your head painfully shatters when you find out too much about them, and you are left with the bitter truth.<br/><br/>But more than anything he hated what the saw in Kitsu‘s eyes.<br/><br/>It wasn‘t true anger, it wasn‘t determination, it wasn‘t a strong believe in his purpose that he was supporting.<br/><br/>It was nothing much, nothing much of anything.<br/><br/>What did he even stand for? He just seemed tired, possibly broken, uncertain.<br/><br/>Kitsu had called him a sheep, and Vitya had made similar comments about him, his floofy hair and electric trait reminding him of a certain sheep Pokemon apparently.<br/><br/>Somewhere way at the back of his head a Vitya sounding voice said that the foxes was the natural predator of the sheep, and that this set up was inevitable.<br/><br/>“Are we understood?“ Kitsu pressed, covering Lux‘ mouth now, as he used his trait to shatter the bone in Lux‘ arm.<br/><br/>Lux screamed into Kitsu‘s hand at the pain, the shock of it making him jerk back, but finding nothing but cold wall behind him. Tears ran down his face, both from the pain and from the betrayal. There was no winning.<br/><br/>Kitsu removed his hand from Lux‘ mouth.<br/><br/>“Are we understood, or do I have to be more drastic to shut you up?“<br/><br/>“Mareep can hurt too, you know?“ Lux said, shaking from the pain, and vision swimming from the tears.<br/><br/>Then released as much electricity into Kitsu‘s body as he could, other screamed with the pain, until Lux released him, the screams stopped, and Kitsu‘s unmoving body sank to the ground.<br/><br/>Lux would have to report a guarding gone corrupt, what a pain.<br/><br/>Ah, shit, his arm hurt like a motherfucker, shattered bones truly were not to mess with.<br/><br/>At least this bitch would support his case.<br/><br/>Lux looked at the unmoving form of his lowly breathing former hero. Sometimes he wished it could rain this deep in the city.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Breathe in, Breathe out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Delayed drowing/ Chemical Pneumonia/ Oxygen Mask</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Takes place after the events of day 8: Where did Everybody go?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Lux had thought he had kept it a secret, but the second they were back at the agency Victor turn around to him harshly and barked:<br/><br/>“MedBay, now.“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Lux had half a mind to protest, on principal, but his vocal chords felt rough and his throat swollen and he tried not to breathe too deeply to avoid triggering coughs.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Instead he just nodded obediently, hung his head low and went to the MedBay without a complaint.<br/><br/>Well in hindsight he had been obvious, no wonder Victor had let him out of the final confrontation as much as possible.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He knocked on the MedBay office door politely, before letting himself in without awaiting an answer.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He was met with the pleasant and delightful face of Doctor Lucky, whose job, bright demeanour, name, and pink hair often prompted Vitya to call her Nurse Joy, which she wasn‘t amused by.<br/><br/>Where her pretty face usually made his day and all his pain worth it, he barely felt like even acknowledging her.<br/><br/>“How can I help you, Susanowo?“ She cheered, trying to make her office a bright and happy space, as she had once admitted.<br/><br/>Lux pressed his flat hand against his chest, hoping that that and his unsteady breaths would fill her in.<br/><br/>“The lungs then?“ She asked after a moment. Lux nodded and pointed further up his body, „and the throat,“ he nodded again, pointing to the middle of his face, where is nose was running and a burning sting hurt to hard it felt like it had pierced his skull, „and the nasal tract,“ he nodded again, and sat down on the patient bed without waiting for her queue.<br/><br/>Lucky closed a Wikipedia article about different types of algae and got her stethoscope out. She slipped the cold metal under his shirt, „breathe for me, Susanowo.“<br/><br/>Lux tried with all his might to breathe as deeply as he could, without triggering any coughs.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Lucky hummed, pushing the stethoscope around different places on his chest, and Lux hoped he could stop it with the deep breaths soon.<br/><br/>Lucky took the stethoscope off, and put pink tainted googles on. Lux had dubbed the x-ray glasses once, which Lucky took as an offence because there was much more nuance to them, all of which had gone over Lux‘ head.<br/><br/>Lux could see his own lungs on Lucky‘s screen behind her, and even he knew that they were visibly irritated.<br/><br/>Same for his swollen throat and vocal chords.<br/><br/>And his nose and sinuses.<br/><br/>“Did you breathe in anything that you shouldn‘t have?“ She asked, as her look wandered down again.<br/><br/>Lux opened his mouth but had to put conscious effort into forming words.<br/><br/>“Poison tract.“<br/><br/>Lucky‘s eyes moved from his lungs up to his eyes.<br/><br/>“Do you know what poison exactly?“<br/><br/>Lux shook his head. There had been no time to find out, they just had to turn the gas or whatever it was off before it could be used as a generalised weapon.<br/><br/>Lucky took her googles of and sighed.<br/><br/>“What do I do with you boys?“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Lux tried to answer in even as much as a shrug, but he had to concentrate too hard on not coughing, he felt like it would scorch his lungs.<br/><br/>“Go lie down, let‘s hope the general med does the trick,“ she clapped on his shoulder as she got something that Lux was told was not-an-oxygen-tank attached to not-an-oxygen-mask that had a well familiar label on it.<br/><br/>Lux knew that general med was used against common colds and smoker lungs among other things. He had been told how exactly it worked and what was in it, but trait medicine went way over his head. That‘s what they got a doctor at the agency for in the first place.<br/><br/>Lucky put the mask on him.<br/><br/>“Go to sleep for a bit, Susanowo, let‘s see how you hold up in about half an hour.“<br/><br/>Lux inhaled the subtle and pleasant smell of strawberries, letting the exhaustion of the day and the side effect of the medicin work on him.<br/><br/>He only barely saw from the corner of his eye Lucky opening the algae Wikipedia page again, before he saw nothing but black.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Everyone chill, he‘s napping not dead</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. „Is something burning?“</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Braning/ Heat exhaustion/ Fire</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Victor hadn‘t thought he‘d be the sort of person that burn a hero agency down.<br/><br/>To make a statement.<br/><br/><strong>[„When we <em>made</em> heroes we also <em>made</em> villains.“]</strong><br/><br/>He watched the smoke go up the abyss. He had never seen the natural sky from this place, but usually he could at the very least see the upper levels.<br/><br/><strong>[„When we gave heroes the purpose to ‚protect‘, we gave them cool names and costumes and made the entire scene a theatre show.“]</strong><br/><br/>His team was with him, following him to hell and back, in their own words. But they also agrees with his views, seeing the same issues he found in their line of work.<br/><br/>In their way of life.<br/><br/>The son of the hero whose agency they were burning down was with them, lighting himself a cigarette, ironically. Victor had never seen him smoke before, despite having shared a class room with him for three years.<br/><br/><strong>[„When we made heroes the coolest theatre group, we also created a response movement. One that does not seek the greater good, but grand titles and recognition, and more than anything, a response from the great heroes. Because in the end, this is one big rivalry between theatre groups. Aliases, costumes, press conferences and all.“]</strong></span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The hero whose life they tried to ruin for the sake of a grander picture had a fire trait. He had employed has his family in his agency, so the human damage would be minimal in this terrorist attack.<br/><br/><strong>[„Consequently, this isn‘t a fight between good and evil, this is one big theatre group fighting another.</strong><br/><br/><strong>Police enforce laws, and fire fighters save lives, doctors cure the ill, and first responders for all situations have existed long before we ever put heroes into this world.</strong><br/><br/><strong>Being a super hero just gives you much more social media recognition, because you are being recongnised as a cool indivual that is to be admired, not a small cog in a grand group of people that all do their respectworthy jobs. Where would be the drama in that?“]</strong><br/><br/>It‘s not that Victor couldn‘t <em>take</em> criticism. He struggled with it, but he took it.<br/><br/>He had an issue with criticism that wasn‘t constructive, and he had an issue with criticism that caused more victims than it offered solutions.<br/><br/><strong>[„If you wanted to be evil for the money, you would go into trafficking, if you wanted to be evil for the power, you would join a cartel.</strong><br/><br/><strong>Heroes don‘t stop corrupt politicians or billionair CEOs that work their human cattle employees to the bone to get every last cent out of a company. Heroes fight people that want to be evil to make a scene.“]</strong><br/><br/>The hero whose agency they were burning down was a domestic abuser. His son, standing next to Victor, was one of many victims of that person.<br/><br/>He was a high ranked hero. Amazing at his job, but morally layered enough to cause a discussion that would hopefully result in permanent change.<br/><br/>Victor had long since given up on hero ranking, despite having made it this close to the top himself.<br/><br/>He had seen real heroism in action.<br/><br/>He had seen heroes sit down with villains and just listen to them, let them talk out what urged them to put on a mask and make a mess.<br/><br/>He‘s seen dedicated villains turn heel on their ideals, because for the first time ever they were listened to, and had to speak their scewed views out loud to a real person, and see their errors for what they were.<br/><br/>Victor had seen heroes forgive villains.<br/><br/>Forgive their actiosn and let them go, and had seen villains fall to their knees, crying out waterfalls, because they had seen the errors they had made, and what terrible consequences that had been for them, and not knowing where to go from here, this turning point.<br/><br/>True heroes had helped these former villains find footing in the real world and make something out of themselves.<br/><br/>These sorts of heroes were incredibly low ranked, their statistics were shit.<br/><br/>And suddenly arrests rates seemed utterly redundant.<br/><br/><strong>[„What <em>is</em> heroism anymore, in a world where being a hero is a job?</strong><br/><br/><strong>Are surgeons still heroes after a twenty hour operation?</strong><br/><br/><strong>Are fire fighers still heroic after storming into a burning and collapsing building to save a single trapped person, caught under burning rubble?</strong><br/><br/><strong>Are parents risking their own health and savety for their children still heroic?</strong><br/><br/><strong>What‘s it all matter when real heroes stop super villains from attacking the city?“]</strong><br/><br/>“No more heroes,“ the scorch mark on the side of the hero agency said.<br/><br/><strong>[„This is why I have decided to take all heroes down. Our society is plaged with an infestation, and I will not rest until I have killed every hero with my own hands, aspiring or retired does not matter, they are all evil people and need to be gone!“]</strong><br/><br/>“Let‘s go home,“ Victor said to his group, „I‘m getting tired.“</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Into the Unknown</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Posession/ Magical Healing/ science gone wrong</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Mami had decided to give her body over to science.<br/><br/>Well, her trait, not her body, but her trait was part of her body, so one came with the other.<br/><br/>Her grandmother, Ami, had done the same thing when she was young, doing three surgeries total, and getting so much money from the matter that even Mami was still benefitting form the fruits of that labour.<br/><br/>Ami‘s trait was a crazy functional self-regeneration. So efficient it made the 75 year old woman look no older than 25.<br/><br/>Drinking wine and smoking cigars she had declared Mami an idiot for doing the surgeries when she didn‘t have to, but Mami disagreed.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Three weeks ago a robbery on her person had escalated, and her unmoving body had been left in a dirty ditch to vegetate away.<br/><br/>She had been mere moment away from stepping into the proverbial light, any longer and she would have been a lost case.<br/><br/>But thanks to her grandmother‘s contribution to modern science 50 years ago she had been brought from the bring of death to perfect health without any form of permanent damage in a matter of three days.<br/><br/>So when a woman that valued her own immediate comfort first, and the communal aspect of living in a grander society... second at best, did such a grand contribution to medicine and science as she knew it, then Mami was just OBLIEGET to do the same. At least.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">So she followed the invitation from the research laboratories in her area and acquired her surgery.<br/><br/>The buildings were... Not what she had expected.<br/><br/>Nice and clean, but not uncomfortably sterile, it was open and almost homely. She could see pastel colour accents and living greens.<br/><br/>She went to the reception desk to confirm her appointment, the lady at the desk had a very sunny smile, and a soothing sort of aura.<br/><br/>Mami waited twenty minutes until she was called into a doctors office.<br/><br/>She was met by another incredibly nice woman who was apparently the head surgeon of her impending surgery, as well as a man that would be working under her, and three nurses.<br/><br/>They all introduced each other and they asked Mami about her trait.<br/><br/>She shared that her trait was the creation of things in her body that would pop out of her skin. She could make any inanimate object that came to her mind as long as she understood what it was made off.<br/><br/>She further explained that her mother could likewise multiply any given objects she pushed into her body, not necessarily through an orphice, since her skin would absorb and pop out object as she pleased it too, her father could dissolve matters he touched, and he grandmother could regenerate.<br/><br/>The head surgeon woman nodded and thanked her for her collaboration and all the detail and took notes.<br/><br/>The surgeon explained that they would give her a general anethetic, take samples from her body, and she was free to go after.<br/><br/>She nodded, she agreed, and she let herself be led to the operation room.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She watched as the surgery team set everything up and chose music and quipped among themselves and then one of the nurses told her to count down from five.<br/><br/>She did.<br/><br/>After a moment she asked when the narcotics were going to set in. She was told the surgery was already over.<br/><br/>Five hours had passed.<br/><br/>That unexpected twist gave her a headache, she was adviced to eat something.<br/></span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Started by the... uneventufulness of it all she asked if there was anymore for her to do. She was denied such with a soft smile.<br/><br/>She dropped by the front desk again asking if anymore was needed of her but the front desk lady denied her as well with a soft smile.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><br/>She left the building. <br/><br/>It felt odd.<br/><br/>She had expected more.<br/><br/>Hmm.<br/><br/>She treated herself to some tea and pastries and checked with her families bank account. The money she made with the surgery was already there. It was... quite a bit.<br/><br/>She checked her bare arms and legs. She looked fine. She felt fine.<br/><br/>She wasn‘t entirely aware how much of what had been taken from her, but she had also not taken any scarring from the significantly more damaging robbery three weeks ago, so she didn‘t know what she had expected.<br/><br/>She went home, uncertain of what to do next.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Its pieces like this that make me glad that is callled it „whumtober /abuse/„</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Forced to beg/ Hallucination/ Shoot the hostage</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">This couldn‘t be true, it couldn‘t be real, this was all just a dream, a hallucination, just imaginary!<br/><br/>Boom had been through beatings before. He‘s had legal guardians that whipped him or spanked him or cut him and he‘s seen any wapon from the regular wooden spoon up to genuine knives.<br/><br/>But this was the first time he ever encountered a gun, and those were far more terrifying than any regular old wanna-be mother with a chain trying to whip the defiance out of you.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The first shot of the gun still rung in his ears, terrifying him through his bones way deep into his heart like he had never been before. The fact that his body could physically explode had been his saving grace the first time, but he could feel the fearful shaking in his bones and he was not certain that it would work again.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Another shot.<br/><br/>He closed his eyes, he whimpered.<br/><br/>“Ah fuck! Son of a bitch!“ A new voice.<br/><br/>“What in the—„ The kidnapper said, startled, evidently as confused as Boom.<br/><br/>Boom opened his eyes.<br/><br/>The fear made it hard to focus, and his vision got uncertain with unshed tears.<br/><br/>A person laid in front if him, getting up now.<br/><br/>Silver hair, a dumbass orange and green costume...<br/><br/>Victor Belona!<br/><br/>V—<br/><br/>Victor had saved him.<br/><br/>Victor didn‘t stand quite as straight as he usually would, he was sort of hunged over, holding his stomach as if—<br/><br/>There was a hole in him!<br/><br/>Boom couldn‘t see the kidnapper on the other side of Victor, and his eyes were glued to the bleeding hole in Victors back.<br/></span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Victor Belona had taken a bullet for him.<br/><br/>“I think we need to have a talk,“ Victor snarled at the kidnapper, with so much venom it made Boom scared for an entirely different reason.<br/><br/>Boom could only hear an „oh fuck,“ from the kidnapper before he made a ditch for it and a loud „RAPMAGE!“ From Victor before he shot after.<br/><br/>Victor Belona had taken a bullet for him.<br/><br/>The Belona household was the 4th family that had adopted him. Boom had successfully bullied himself out of the first three.<br/><br/>The single woman that wanted a servant and didn‘t like Booms defiance in following her orders and beat him with a spoon until she eventually gave him back.<br/><br/>The woman with the 10 other kids that she had succeffuly beat into submission, that had a room entirely dedicated to physical punishment of children that acted up. It was more home to Boom that his bedroom was.<br/><br/>And after that woman had given up on him that couple with three own kids. Them heavily favoured when he was supposed to be butt of the joke.<br/><br/>Problem being that when his sister would put itch pulver in his sheets he would hold her head in the toilet until he deemed her properly taught.<br/><br/>And then there was Victor Belona and Theodor Brava.<br/><br/>Boom had been... Impressed by them...<br/><br/>When they had adopted him they saw him at his worst. The home had chained him to the heater again with a muzzle because Ally had decided to kick him again so he had decided to bite her.<br/><br/>It was a somewhat regular occurance to restarin him, and when the home forced trait suppressors pills down his throat it ought to be somewhat successful.<br/><br/>And then Victor Belona and Theodor Brava walked in. It was the first time he had heard of them. They discussed something about ‚a case‘ but Victor had been distracted by Boom.<br/><br/>Boom made sure to glare at him extra harsh.<br/><br/>“Why is he chained up?“ Victor had asked, as if he didn‘t approve.<br/><br/>The trait suppressor pills wore off.<br/><br/>Boom exploded out of his chains.<br/><br/>The dreadful voice with which the home runner started praying pleased Boom, fuck her, but Victor‘s wide eyes pissed him off.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He went in and charged at Victor who didn‘t even so much as react.<br/><br/>A scaled hand stopped him.<br/><br/>“Whoa there buddy, it‘s okay.“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Boom followed the scaled up up to Theodor Brava‘s face. Open and warm, like he was amused at this at worst, but not concerned in the slightest.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Boom hated him for it.<br/><br/>And for the deep and soothing voice that stopped him in his tracks of destruction.<br/><br/>“I see you you‘re quite the troubemaker,“ Victor said with a grin, squatting down to be on eye level with Boom.<br/><br/>Boom glared at him, unwilling to answer.<br/><br/>“I think we can put your explosiveness to better use,“ Victor said, explosions coming from open palms.<br/><br/>Okay so maybe...<br/><br/>Maybe he was a <em>little</em> bit impressed.<br/><br/>It was the only reason he let them adopt him.<br/><br/>Usually he made a fuss.<br/><br/>But he let it happen that time.<br/><br/>As an exception.<br/><br/>To see what would happen.<br/><br/>They took him home and like they‘d said he‘d take him to train and he had a sister that liked to scream and scratch and be destructive and he was allowed to beat the shit out of her and bite her and kick her just as much as she was doing to him and he was only held back from it when there would be collateral damage.<br/><br/>It‘s been two weeks.<br/><br/>He had waited for them to snap.<br/><br/>Waited for the fake patience to wear off, wait for them to get tired of him, wait for them to act up.<br/><br/>Wait for something insignificant to be a step too far, wait for Katsumi to do something that warranted a beating.<br/><br/>Katsumi got sent to her room or Boom wouldn‘t get desert or maybe they‘d cancel a trip they were going to do but...<br/><br/>Nothing bad happened.<br/><br/>And then the kidnapping.<br/><br/>Just not expecting anthing going home from school, Katsumi busy in a fight with some kids two years older than them and suddenly it got dark around him.<br/><br/>His new guardians had warned him of press and camera‘s, but he hadn‘t been aware of being used as blackmail.<br/><br/>The abanonded building, the gun, Victor intervening and now he was alone.<br/><br/>“Hey there, you okay?“<br/><br/>Boom was so startled he jumped and also almost exploded again.<br/><br/>“Sorry sorry, didn‘t mean to scare you. Victor has a tendency to call for me when he needs help but he never says where he is.“<br/><br/>Theodor Brava.<br/><br/>Smile soft, voice deep an soothing, squatting down on Boom‘s eye level like his husband had done two weeks ago when he had been adopted.<br/><br/>“Can I have a look at you?“ Theodor asked with that calming voice of his, unthreatening and soft, hands open to indicate that he would have to touch Boom.<br/><br/>Boom held out his arms.<br/><br/>As Theodor checked his arms and face and the rest of his body Boom waited.<br/><br/>For something.<br/><br/>He didn‘t know what.<br/><br/>But something.<br/><br/>For the final string to snap, for a beat down for being kidnapped and reckless or for yelling about fighting better or being useless or ANYTHING.<br/><br/>Victor yelled.<br/><br/>In general but sometimes with purpose.<br/><br/>He had yelled when he saw Boom smash Katsumi‘s head against the living room table when she pissed him off.<br/><br/>He had yelled when there was glass on the floor and he had told Katsumi to not walk on it and she had seen it as an invitation.<br/><br/>He had yelled when Katsumi had had too much sugar and run at top speed through the living room just crashing into things and breaking them.<br/><br/>But there was never... never a yell that was not tracable. It was always about something where they would either hurt themselves or others.<br/><br/>Victor also yelled at muffins that would not bake fast enough when he had places to be, or the news he was reading at the breakfast table that said ‚some bullshit‘ again, and he yelled at work when some employee pissed him off, but the employees would just giggle in response.<br/><br/>So Boom wasn‘t... scared of Victor.<br/><br/>Victor yelled a lot, but he yelled in ways that made Theodor laugh, and he yelled in ways that invited Katsumi to join in.<br/><br/>Katsumi and Victor yelled at a Tv show once, it went on for a while, and Theodor had looked so done.<br/><br/>So Boom waited for Theodor to yell.<br/><br/>Boom waited for Theodor to snap.<br/><br/>Because where the loud people were brutal, the quiet people were lethal.<br/><br/>“Look,“ Theodor said, eventually, after deeming him not damaged enough apparently, „we are very sorry.“<br/><br/>Wait, what?<br/><br/>“We have made quite a name for ourselves, so we know we are in the papers a lot. We try to keep you kids away from the press, but they put their noses everywhere, and our personal address keeps getting leaked. We really try ouR best, I promise.“<br/><br/>That was...<br/><br/>Wait, where was the yellings? The pain?<br/><br/>“Katsumi was already taken two times, and we have only had her for half a year. It is really quite a neucance, and we really wished and didn‘t happen, and while we do out best to stop it, we cannot promise this was the last time.“<br/><br/>Katsumi... was...<br/><br/>“I promise you one thing though,“ Theodor grapped him by the shoulder with a serious face, and Boom‘s heart skipped a beat, „whenever they take you, no matter where and no matter when. No matter how far we have to travel and how much we have to search. We will get you out.“<br/><br/>Boom didn‘t know how to react. This sitation was much more unexpected than the whole kidnapping deal, he sort of wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn‘t come, and everything was just too much.<br/><br/>He nodded.<br/><br/>“The police got him before I got to kill him,“ Victor said from behind Boom, „how is he?“<br/><br/>“He seems fine, just a bit shocked,“ Thedor answered, „how are you?“<br/><br/>“I‘ve had worse;“ Victor said, Revealing the bullet wound that looked much worse now than it had before.<br/><br/>Theodor proceeded to make a fuss about Victor then, pushing him so that he would get medical attention as soon as possible.<br/><br/>He had a hand on Boom though, never letting go of him the entire time, even when his concentration was on someone else.<br/><br/>As they left the building Boom got blinded by the light outside, startled and exposed now he pressed himself to Theodor‘s side, whose arm wrapped around his shoudlers, securely.<br/><br/>Theodor delivered his husband and Boom to the medical team outside, and as Boom got checked up by a doctor or something and Theodor stayed with him but looked worryingly over to his husband.<br/><br/>He liked this world, where the people were nice and his family was fun. He liked getting to fight and not needing to talk and he liked that he was never denied meals when he acted up, and that he got his own room and that it was bright and colourful.<br/><br/>He liked this entrely unbelieveable life he had, thought about calling his new guardians ‚dad‘ if it came to it. But time would tell.<br/><br/>He wanted to live this a little longer, unrealistic as it was.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. I did not see that coming</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Black mail/ Dirty secret/ Wrongfully accused</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><strong>[„SOON TO BE PROFESSIONAL HERO IMPACT FOUND SNOGGING FELLOW HERO STATIC??!?!?!“]</strong><br/><br/>Underneath the sensational headline was a pitcure of Victor and Lux locking lips. Defenitely a private and tender sort of kiss, and definitely a intrusion of privacy.<br/><br/>But their school had made them famous years ago with various social events, so it was apparently entirely legal to just snoop on their private lives and publish vague conspiracy theories about it.<br/><br/>Theo sighed as he put two arms full of grocery bags on the communal kitchen counter of their dorms, and picked up the badly scorched „news“ article.<br/><br/>He could barely see the hints of a line that sounded like „Impact cheating on his long time boyfriend Red Rampage? Find out now where—„ as he unceromoneiously dropped the paper in the trash.<br/><br/>“You‘d think after the ‚open relationship‘ statement we were forced to publish the press would have gotten over the ‚oh my god he‘s cheating!‘ Headlines but apparently not,“ Theo said to a sulking Victor, sitting on the kitchen floor, arms slung around his knees and looking away all sulky like.<br/><br/>“That picture was taken two days ago,“ Victor mumbled into his knees. Theo hummed aknowledgingly as he put groceries in the fridge.<br/><br/>Then he stopped.<br/><br/>“Two days ago...“<br/><br/>Two days ago Lux had been on a mission with a professional hero he had been doing an internship with up until that point. Things had escalated and said professional hero whom Lux had been working with for three months and had been looking up to a great deal was yet to be put out of a coma.<br/><br/>“Ohhh...“ Theo said, realisation hitting him with for the context of the picture. That explained so much... about everything.<br/><br/>“You can see in the picture that‘s he‘s crying, you can see the hospital“ Victor sulked, „he was a mess that day, all over the place. But no, it‘s all about wether or not I find his ass hotter than yours.“<br/><br/>Victor had long since stopped giving a shit about what the press and the public thought of him. Once they had decided his grumpy demeanour and crappy attitude where signs of an evil person he had stopped putting effort into his image.<br/><br/>Much to the argin of his friends who issued that this public image would become an issue with his work career but Victor had stopped trying.<br/><br/>But then the press found out that Victor and Theo were closer than most friends ought to be, their relationship and everything they did got blown out of proportion.<br/><br/>Against their will.<br/><br/>So they had come out much sooner than they would have liked to.<br/><br/>“Since you are both still minors doesn‘t that mean a pic of you making out is some sort of child pornography?“ Theo asked, putting the rest of the groceries away.<br/><br/>“Dunno,“ Victor sulked, „Rice‘s looking into it. There is no winning though,“ he looked at Theo then, genuine pain in his eyes, „the next fucking headline is gonna be ‚professional ‚hero‘ takes news paper to court over picture of him cheating on his boyfriend‘.“<br/><br/>Theo balled the grocery bags up and put them in their designed spot. He squatted down in front of his boyfriend to rest his forehead against the other‘s.<br/><br/>He didn‘t know a solution, he didn‘t know where it would go from here, he didn‘t know how to solve this.<br/><br/>But he smiled, because he knew that no matter what would happen, they would make it though.<br/><br/>“I believe in us,“ Theo said, smiling genuinely.<br/><br/>“You are an idiot for it,“ Victor responded, but smiling just as well.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Panic! At the disco</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Panic attacks/ Phobias/ Paranoias</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">There were two sorts of people that looked at Caero.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Those that looked right through him because he had, as Victor had put it, ‚chronic background character desease‘, and those that visibly shat their pants when they looked into his face.<br/><br/>Caero was at peace with his silk shooting trait, was quite fond of it in all honesty, and the bodily mutations that came with being somewhat of a giant spider were perfectly fine in his and most people‘s eyes.<br/><br/>But he still got somewhat of a sick joy of watching people shit themselves when they looked into his ‚unnervingly black eyes‘, as Lux had once said. There came a sort of power with being inherently intimidating. He wondered if Victor felt like this all the time.<br/><br/>As much as most of his characteristic was convenient, Caero has had enough of just staring at his opponent, he sprayed out sticky silk to trap the drug trafficker in. „Thank‘s for the cooperation,“ he said with his signature grin, sometimes this job was easy.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The trafficker got out of his shock, cursed into the air at general, and diluted into generalised glibber out of Caero‘s silk hold.<br/><br/>He stunk like all things dead.<br/><br/><em>And then sometimes there is days like this</em>, Caero thought, as he ran after the quickly retreating death glibber.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Oh we‘Re back to short stories? Yea íokay i know what cosnistency is hmmm i‘Ve heard of her</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Broken Hearts</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Grief/ Mourning a Loved One/ Survivors Guilt</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The steady beeping of the heart rate monitor pierced through Lux‘ perception of reality.<br/><br/>“Because it‘s a trait,“ the doctor had said.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Lux had seen many wonders of modern medecine. People impaled or full on dismembered, closer to death than most corpeses, all back on their feet better than before.<br/><br/>He had seen traits that make you projectile vomit and traits that make your blood clot and traits that give you permanent fever, and he had seen pills, injections, and straight up just gas masks that worked against that.<br/><br/>But none of those had helped with his master.<br/><br/>The coma was defenitely a trait attack from a villain since Lux had seen it happen, and the doctors had thanked him for the information saying that it made keeping a stable condition easier but that‘s all they could do seemingly.<br/><br/>Keep the condition stable.<br/><br/>In a coma.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The steady beeping of the heart rate monitor.<br/><br/>Victor and Theo had hurried to his aid when they had heard what happened, asking the doctor way smarter questions that Lux would have been able to think up in in his brightest of days.<br/><br/>Traits and medecine against it constantly evolved around each other, so even trait medecine that could erase all traits would, on very rare occasion, meet a trait mutation that one could not erase.<br/><br/>The chance was slim.<br/><br/>But it had happened.<br/><br/>To his master.<br/><br/>The steady beat of the heart rate monitor.<br/><br/>It‘s been barely over 24 hours so Victor had said nothing is said and done yet. It‘s only the early days.<br/><br/>Lux didn‘t respond.<br/><br/>The steady beat of the heart rate monitor.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Victor and Theo had left and some time later Caero and Stacy had dropped by to see how he was holding up but he had not been able to give them an answer.<br/><br/>The steady beat of the heart rate monitor.<br/><br/>Rei had made him eat.<br/><br/>It had been via text message but it worked. She was too far away physically to drop by, first real gig of her freshly formed band and she had to take time off school for it, but she had taken time between gigs to make Lux eat.<br/><br/>He ate half a curry bun, she said it was enough for now.<br/><br/>The steady beat of the heart rate monitor.<br/><br/>Every single scene ran through Lux‘ mind simultaniously. It was heart to focus on anything, to make sense of it all, to sort any of it.<br/><br/>He just saw the same scenes over and over again.<br/><br/>The bust.<br/><br/>How they had been found out.<br/><br/>The direct confrontation.<br/><br/>His master collapsing.<br/><br/>The first year intern making a run for it to get help.<br/><br/>Lux to caught up in the shock of it all to fully register what happened after.<br/><br/>The bust.<br/><br/>How they had been found out.<br/><br/>The direct—<br/><br/>The steady beat of the heart rate monitor.</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">A notification on his phone. The event was in the news already. He didn‘t read the articles.<br/><br/>The steady beat of the heart rate monitor.<br/><br/>More notifcations, Victor ranting about the phrasing of those articles. He did that a lot though. Victor wasn‘t friendly with sensationalist press.<br/><br/>The steady beat of the heart rate monitor.<br/></span>
</p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">If he had been better, if he had been faster, if he had been more clever none of this would have happened.<br/><br/>If he wasn‘t so inexpereinced if he wasn‘t so reckless if he—</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Hey there,“ Lux shrieked and jump in his seat as something cold was held against his forhead.<br/><br/>A soda can.<br/><br/>“Welcome back to earth, airhead,“ Asho‘s tired smile said, still holding the soda can in Lux‘ face as an offering.<br/><br/><em>This wouldn‘t have happened, if Asho was there, he is way smarter than me.</em></span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Stop ignoring me and take the can, it‘s really cold.“<br/><br/>Lux took the can without saying a word or looking at Asho.<br/><br/>“You can ignore me all you want but I‘m here to make you drink something.“<br/><br/>Lux stared at the can in his hands, freezing his fingers off and covered in dew.<br/><br/>“If I—„<br/><br/>“I‘m not here to hear you complain I‘m here to make you drink.“<br/><br/>Lux looked at Asho.<br/><br/>He leaned against the hospital bed, hands in his pockets and hunged over as he usually was. Either becuase he was shy or because his lanky physique made him feel awkward. Or both. </span>
</p>
<p class="p2">
  
</p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„There is nothing you could have done.“</span>
</p>
<p class="p2"> </p>
<p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„You weren‘t there.“<br/><br/>“I‘ve worked with you before.“<br/><br/>The steady beat of the hear rate monitor.<br/><br/>“Drink something, Lux.“<br/><br/>Lux opened the can, fizz spitting out of it as if it were pissed at being trapped inside the metal containment.<br/><br/>He took a sip.<br/><br/>The fizz and temperature hurt his throat as he drank it, and the flavouring was so artifically sweet he could barely drink it.<br/><br/>He emptied the can.<br/><br/>He felt better. Clear headed, collected.<br/><br/>He looked at Asho and at the drink in his hand. He knew the label, they weren‘t magic pills of concentration or anthing.<br/><br/>“What did you put in my drink?“ He asked Asho, feeling almost human again.<br/><br/>“Energy drinks do a number on your ADHD. It‘s the sugar and caffein. Also from what I can tell you haven‘t eaten anthing.“ Lux wanted to to argeu that with his half eaten curry bun but Asho raised knowing eye brows before he got the chance.<br/><br/>“Did you take your pills today, Lux?“<br/><br/>Lux looked away, silently.<br/><br/><em>I don‘t deserve it.</em><br/><br/>„Take your pills, take a nap, I‘ll take over.“<br/><br/>“But—„<br/><br/>“No buts, this enviroment is bad for you, take a nap, come back afterwards if you like. I‘m not leaving until you come back.“<br/><br/>Everything in Lux‘s brain was running doubel time.<br/><br/>“But what about school?“<br/><br/>“You forget my dad is our teacher,“ Asho countered with a smirk, „go home, Lux.“<br/><br/>Lux tried to find final arguements to counter. Anything.<br/><br/>He felt tired.<br/><br/>Falling into bed tired.<br/><br/>He got up.<br/><br/>“Asho I—„ He didn‘t know what to say, the words died in his throat. Everthing just felt bad. „Thank you.“<br/><br/>“No prob. Now go home.“<br/><br/>Lux nodded as he squeezed Asho‘s arm in passing, to show some sort of gratefulness.<br/><br/>He could still hear the steady beat of the heart rate monitor as he left the door, but he could also feel his worries sink as he went away.<br/><br/>He would pick them up again when he‘d come back, but for now he would have other things to do.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>„You know a lot about ADHD.“</p>
<p>„We all have people we care too much about“</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. „Toto, I have a feeling we‘re not in Kansas anymore</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Lost/ Field Medicine/ Medieval</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Katsumi had never been this high up. Never been this far away from the Abyss.<br/><br/>All she could see from here was... planes upon planes of green.<br/><br/>She knew these were the Sky Parks, had heard of them, had a vague idea of them.<br/><br/>They were amazing to see. She had never seen this much... endless green before... she could only vaguely spy the Abyss inbetween.<br/><br/>And where there wasn‘t green of the planes planes, there was even much more blue of the sky.<br/><br/>It was breath taking.<br/><br/>Awe inspiring.<br/><br/>Maybe Victor had been right, maybe hiking was—<br/><br/>She slipped.<br/><br/>She shrieked in shock as she tried and failed to hold onto something, she vaguely heard her name being called as she fell down a cliff.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">—————</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The last thing Victor saw of his daughter was her gazing over a cliff onto the Sky Parks.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">While it was amazing to see the obvious awe in her gaze he meant to call out to her to step away from the dangerous place, but only saw as the ground gave away beneath her and she slipped down the cliff into generalised greenery.<br/><br/>He called out her name has he watched her disappear.<br/><br/>Theo‘s presence vaguely in mind, knowing he‘d stay back with Boom, he shot after the disappearing body.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><br/>Years of experience in hiking gave him an advantage as he slithered down the cliff and the greenery, every now and again supported by his own trait to catch his fall.<br/><br/>He heard his daughter curse, at least she was okay.<br/><br/>He landed by a cliff side with a bit of producing greenery that Katsumi had landed on that was almost entirely underwood more than a platform.<br/><br/>That was defenitely a broken leg.<br/><br/>“Ah, son of a bitch!“ Katsumi cursed, as she tried to hold it but hissed at the pain every time.<br/><br/>“Let me have a look at it,“ Victor said, approaching the hurt girl.<br/><br/>“No, fuck off old man I can handle myself!“<br/><br/>Victor took a deep breath, he could do this.<br/><br/>“Then get up.“<br/><br/>Katsumi moved through hissing but actually managed to adjust her position.<br/><br/>“Je— shit don‘t actually do it, your leg is broken and you don‘t actually wanna make it worse.“<br/><br/>“It‘s not like you know fucking anything,“ Katsumi spat out, moving still.<br/><br/>“I am a first responder, now let me look at your damn leg.“<br/><br/>Katsumi still grumbled but actually stopped moving.<br/><br/>A clean break, not unhealable, but a pain nonetheless.<br/><br/>„I‘m going to correct your leg and then I‘m going to put a leg brace on it.“<br/><br/>“Don‘t even fucking touch me you fucking bastard!“<br/><br/>The fact that Katsumi and him were a lot a like, especially the him that had been her age, was both incredibly hilarious to Victor and also incredibly frustrating to deal with.<br/><br/>Victor used the fuel of that frustration to correct her leg.<br/><br/>“OH FUCKING SON OF A BITCH I SAID DONT TOUCH ME YOU MOTHERFUCKING BASTARD I‘LL KILL YOU SO HARD DEATH WILL BE SCARED OF YOU!!!“<br/><br/>Victor, now calm as anything, because making bratty accident or assault victims feel pain through first aid was always carthatic, could see tears forming in Katsumi‘s eyes as he pulled the leg brace out of his backpack, it seemed she willed them to stay where they were though sheer power of spite alone.<br/><br/>He was a little proud.<br/><br/>“You just carry shit like that around all the time?“ She asked, tears still in her eyes and body shaking, but voice much softer than just a moment ago.<br/><br/>“Obviously. It comes with the job, and I have been hiking longer than you have been alive. Accidents like this happen, and you need to be prepared.“<br/><br/>He put the brace on her leg with delicate hands, and she didn‘t complain anymore, but she still glared at the action happening.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Leg braced, kid pouty, now to get back up the cliff.<br/><br/>Somehow.<br/><br/>“Alright kid, you‘re gonna need to get on my back.“<br/><br/>“What? No! Are you stupid?“<br/><br/>“You got any better way to get up that cliff?“<br/><br/>Katsumi and Victor both looked up the cliff they came from. Directly. It wasn‘t particularly high but it would still be an annoying climb with extra baggage.<br/><br/>“You begged for it,“ Katsumi grumbled, letting herself be helped up, and Victor wondered how he ever made friends in high school.<br/><br/>The climb up was rough with his luggage and a ten year old on his back but nothing that he couldn‘t handle.<br/><br/>Then they heard something, a roar.<br/><br/>———</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It was bone shaking, deep and loud.<br/><br/>Katsumi turned around on the back she was holding onto.<br/><br/>Nothing but the endless green planes of the Sky Gardens and the even more endless blue of the sky.<br/><br/>Then something huge flew past them.<br/><br/>She couldn‘t quite register it but it seemed red.<br/><br/>And huge.<br/><br/>And—<br/><br/>It flew past them again! It had wings and scales and it... it almost looked like—<br/><br/>“Well, I guess you haven‘t seen your father‘s trait in fulfilled form yet.“ Victor said, panting as he climbed up the cliff.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Wha—?“ She asked, looking back to where there was a... there was a full blown dragon just a moment ago!<br/><br/>“You‘re father has a dragon trait,“ Victor panted, „he usually doesn‘t transform all the way because there is just not the space for it in the Abyss, but this high up he‘s got the space. I bet he‘s looking for us.“ Victor turned around then too, grinning all over his face.<br/><br/>Katsumi looked out into the open fields again, and the bone shaking call from the dragon thundered through her again.<br/><br/>There he was, she could see him clearly now! All red scales and flapping wings and there was— Boom sat on him, also looking for them!<br/><br/>“Amazing,“ Katsumi gasped, despite herself, and her dad continued climbing.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Pray for my firend who drew dragon theo and whom i told that i‘d post ehr pic as official art if she made the dragon red and pray for me bc my tablet fckn crashed half way through me posting this</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. I don‘t feel so well</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Chronic Pain/ Hypthermia/ Infection</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The first thing Glynn noticed upon waking up was the cold.<br/><br/>It felt incredibly cold, all of him did. It wasn‘t usually like this.<br/><br/>He wondered if maybe he had forgotten to pay his heating bills, but no, he should be on top of everything so the heating should still work.<br/><br/>Then he noticed the pain. Every single bone in his body screaming at him in agony.<br/><br/>He was used to the underlying pain that came with breaking every bone in his body five too many times and counting, but usually it wasn‘t as bad as this.<br/><br/>Even on bad days it wasn‘t as bad as this.<br/><br/>He tried to get up.<br/><br/>Scratch that, he tried to move.<br/><br/>The incrutiating pain of both his body and ALSO his head as an entirely seperate entity made him almost scream out, and he had barely even twitched.<br/><br/>This was not good, this was not good at all.<br/><br/>His nose stung, it was cold beyond compare, it was runny, and it stung.<br/><br/>He sneezed and his migraine was NOT happy about that, but he sneezed again and again and again and everything felt so bad and his head was swimming and he wanted to cry but at least he was sitting now.<br/><br/>His bones ached, screaming at him, demanding attention.<br/><br/>The migraine was no better.<br/><br/>The cold dominating his body didn‘t help either.<br/><br/>And he still felt like he needed to sneeze.<br/><br/>He‘d have to take meds.<br/><br/>It was okay though, he had meds for his chronic pain in the kitchen, eight meters away form him at most, and the open apartment concept putting no hindrance between him and his extensive (but neglected) medicine cupboard.<br/><br/>Except he couldn‘t leave the bed.<br/><br/>He tried to groan but his throat also hurt on top of everything else.<br/><br/>Okay one thing at a time, what had caused this?<br/><br/>Had he been clear headed he would have probably thought back to how he had jumped head first into freezing cold water hiding from some sketchy figures he had been spying out for intel but didn‘t want to be seen by.<br/><br/>He had <em>known</em> that he should have taken a warm bath as soon as he could but he was hardly a bath person on a good day and the general public could consider themselves lucky if he even showered.<br/><br/>He groaned despite the pain in his throat.<br/><br/>He got up.<br/><br/>Slower than he ever had in his life, screeching out in pain as his joins screamed at him for moving.<br/><br/>Not a good call, none of this, ever, no good at all.<br/><br/>Good thing being that at least he was <em>standing</em> now which meant the hardest part was good and done for but also his head was swimming EVEN more now and he had to take a minute to hope it would leave.<br/><br/>It didn‘t, it subdued somewhat but it was still there. And to top everything off he felt nauseous now. Great.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He slid onwards, baby steps, hoping to strain himself as little as possible. Eyes closed despite the general darkness surrounding him. Ground beneath him changing from carpeted to tiled.<br/><br/>He arrived at his kitchen counter, opening eyes to the general darkness to find the correct cupboard.<br/><br/>He got the wrong one at first.<br/><br/>Aching and in snail tempo he opened the next.<br/><br/>Uhhhhhhhhg, he had so much medicine, which one was for pain again?<br/><br/>And colds?<br/><br/>He had to take a moment, closing his eyes and just breathing.<br/><br/>It was so stressful, it was all so stressful. He wished he had someone to care for him...<br/><br/>He could call his mom, but she would have to drop work and travel way across town to get to him, and he was an adult now and didn‘t want to strain his mother too much.<br/><br/>He didn‘t get along with the people at work too well, he was already glad when they greeted him politely.<br/><br/>His thoughts fell to Vitya.<br/><br/>He‘d gotten Vitya‘s number last time they‘d met. When Vitya had caught him observing a trafficking ring that seemed to be much bigger than first sight would deem.<br/><br/>Vitya had given him his number so that if there was investigating to do again him and his agency could take over that.<br/><br/>But that was that.<br/><br/>Just a business arrangement. And Glynn was just so glad to have even that after observing Vitya from a distance for seven years that he didn‘t want to strain what they had.<br/><br/>After their... history.<br/><br/>Although he played with the idea... Vitya coming over despite himself, hero through and through, calling Glynn an idiot for not taking good care of himself, making him soup to feel better and running him a hot bath unashamed because they had bathed together as kids so there was nothing to it now, was there?<br/><br/>But Glynn kept his pining to himself. Vitya had a loving and wonderful boyfriend, and it was only a matter of time before they would get married. They were such a good match.<br/><br/>So Glynn scratched the idea and sorted through his meds.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The fifth one he took out to glare at in the darkness of his kitchen was the correct one, at least something.<br/><br/>It was empty.<br/><br/>Damnit fuck and everything it was empty and now he would have to go to the pharmacy and get new supplies and damn him, damn him why hadn‘t he refilled last time he had some? Damnit.<br/><br/>He tried to label his pain, what did he have? What would work?<br/><br/>He‘d have to get something against the migraine and also something against the cold. At least that would help with the generalised pain of it all and maybe he could feel fit enough to leave the house for the meds he needed.<br/><br/>God, he felt exhausted already, barely anything done yet and still so much to do and he just wanted to go back to bed.<br/><br/>The migraine got worse, he wanted to cry.<br/><br/>Cough medicine, rash medicine, plasters against the blisters he used to have to deal with, stronger cough medicine.<br/><br/>Wait no that was cold medicine, it may help with the cold that felt like a second body inhabiting his skin.<br/><br/>He took what he basically just guessed to be the right amount because FUCK actually looking at the millimetre recommendation and went searching again.<br/></span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Headache meds that wouldn‘t do shit against this migraine, after burn lotion, meds against a different rash he‘d once gotten from an allergic reaction.<br/><br/>Migraine medicine! Amazing, what a beauty!<br/><br/>Glynn swallowed it dry because he honestly could not care anymore and he probably took more than he should have but fuck it, fuck it!</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He closed the cupboard and he still felt like shit because the medicine had not set in yet but at least this was a start!<br/><br/>Well he couldn‘t go to the store yet so he should probably take lots of warm fluids and also take a bath even if he felt too unsettled for one of those but his joins would probably thank him and the cold maybe leave if he boiled himself and then he could go out and get some supplies like his lacking pain medicine and—<br/><br/>He leaned onto his kitchen counter, groaning with a breath more than voice, due to his aching throat.<br/><br/>This was way too much, way too much for him he could NOT do it but it needed to happen.<br/><br/>He felt tired but his body hurt too much to sleep and he was way too cold to get back into his freezing bed unsuccessfully and all that stress just worsened his migraine—<br/><br/>He‘d need to message Vitya, he had forgotten what had stopped him anyways.<br/><br/>He took a deep breath to collect all the strength he had left in him to shuffle backwards to his sleeping area to detach his phone from its charger.<br/><br/><em>Can you get me some supplies?</em> his message read.<br/><br/><em>The shit you need?</em> Came as response almost immediately, Glynn could have smiled but the pain was too strong for him to feel that strongly. He sent Vitya a shopping list and his address and as he put his phone down notices that it was 4:30 am.<br/><br/>Now he‘d have to wait for Vitya to show up.<br/><br/>Ah fuck.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Do these Taco‘s taste funny to you?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Poison/ drugged/ withdrawal</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><em>It had been the most successful deal we had made since... possibly the early days of our company. 20 years I have made buisness with this man, and I could not be happier about our set up. This would be so good for out company and our wives and children!</em><br/><br/><em>Naonomo and I clunk out taco‘s against each other like they are wine glasses, we truly deserve them.</em><br/><br/><em>I nod appreciatingly as I eat my absolutely delightful taco, Naonomo was right, these tacos are magic!</em><br/><br/><em>And funny.</em><br/><br/><em>They taste funny, they have a... Weird after taste.</em><br/><br/><em>I try to ask Naonomo if his does as well but I choke on my words.</em><br/><br/><em>Foam forms at my mouth and I have to spit my Taco out again, it‘s hard to breath and everything scratches.</em><br/><br/><em>I look at my partner Naonomo, my friend and companion of twenty year and find nothing but a self-satified grin.</em><br/><br/>Saiya gasped as he turned the page of his book, already knowing where this would go, Naonomo had been suspicous form the beginning and Saiya was more than familiar with cynide poisoning.<br/><br/>His wardrobe creaked open.<br/><br/>It didn‘t usually creak.<br/><br/>Saiya couldn‘t see much in the midnight darkness, save the vague outlines of the wardrobe door and the absolute darkness within.<br/><br/>He went back to his book, eager to find out what consequences a public poisoning like this would bring with it.<br/><br/>He noticed his curtains moving from the corner of his eye, despite there being no draft.<br/><br/>It got colder in his room.<br/><br/>He went back to his book, it switched perspective, since the protagonist had obviously died.<br/><br/>A book fell over, right on the book shelf over his bed.<br/><br/>Saiya looked around his room. Going from the brightly illuminated pages of his book to the general darkness of his room made it hard to see, maybe that was what his dad had meant with not reading in the dark.<br/><br/>There was shrill sound, cursing through his bones. He couldn‘t identify if it was a cut off scream or something scratching over metal.<br/><br/>He went back to his book.<br/><br/><em>Finally that useless fuck was dead. After all these attempts he finally—</em><br/><br/>A hand reached out from undere Saiya‘s bed. Skin so pale the soft illumination of his book pages reflected off them almost menacingly.<br/><br/>The hand grabbed the bed, right where his pillow was that he was reading his book on, and a child-figure with long black hair and skin as pale as the hand pushed itself out.<br/><br/>“Mecredi!“ Saiya called excitedly, recognising his best friend. „What are you doing here?“<br/><br/>„You haven’t been visiting.“ Mercredi Maier got up from the ground and set herself on Saiya‘s bed. <br/><br/>„I‘m sorry,“ Saiya said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly, „my dads have been busy at the office since they are exanding it, so generalised private life has taken kind of a back-seat for the time being.“<br/><br/>Mecredi nodded, acknowledging the fact but not commenting on it. She looked at the book in his hand.<br/><br/>“How do you like my book recommendation?“<br/><br/>“It‘s amazing,“ Saiya cheered, careful not to be too loud as to not wake his parents or siblings, „you were right when you said it was obvious who the bad guy was. He was so sloppy about it, I can‘t believe that worked.“<br/><br/>Mecredi smiled, the soft and rare one, and Saiya could only barely see it in the dark, but he valued it all the more.<br/><br/>“I see you already passed the part where Yaoto dies,“ Mecredi said, spying over his shoulder into his book.<br/><br/>“I did, it was quite thrilling, close to life,“ Saiya grinned mischivously at her, „is that why you recommended it to me? Did it remind you of me?“<br/><br/>„It does,“ Mecredi said, open about her feeligns despite her usual persona, „I like to read it when I have not seen you for a while. Nanonomo‘s frequent use of cyanide reminds of you in lonely days.“<br/><br/>“T—to get your daily fix of cynide,“ Saiya swallowed, tongue suddenly not working how it should, „so to say.“<br/><br/>“So to say indeed.“ Mecredi lay down in bed next to him. On her back with her arms crossed over her chest. The way she always lay in bed. „Will you read to me?“ She asked, „I have been experiencing withdrawal symptoms.“<br/><br/>Saiya swallowed thickly.<br/><br/>He was not—<br/><br/>Due to his trait he was used to distance to people. There was rarely anyone immune to a boy made of deadly poison.<br/><br/>But Mercedi was.<br/><br/>None of was entirely sure what her trait was, the Belona‘s never asked, and Boom liked to urge that her trait was ‚being incredibly goth‘.<br/><br/>So sharing a bed... well that was new territory.<br/><br/>He wasn‘t usually this close to people.<br/><br/>Not without consequences.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He swalloed his shiness and lied down next to her.<br/></span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><em>Finally that useless fuck was dead. After all these attempts he finally bit the grass.</em><br/><br/><em>Ome would sue the taco place for food poisonng later and make a great deal with this dreadful lunch as well.</em><br/><br/><em>20 years sure was too much time wasted.</em><br/><br/>———————<br/><br/>„Wake up Saiya, get ready for school.“<br/><br/>Saiya startled awake.<br/><br/>The book, almost read to completion, lay on his chest. The place beside him in the bed was empty.<br/><br/>His father Theo looked around the room, noticing something was off.<br/><br/>“It‘s cold in here,“ his father said.<br/><br/>“I know,“ Saiya answered, dreading some sort of consequence and not awake enough to actually deal with anthing.<br/><br/>His father narrowed his eyes at him, as if he could tell that Mecredi had visited due to the eery vibes of the room, but also couldn‘t propely argue his case.<br/><br/>“Come and get ready, your dad is in a good mood and made pancakes, if you don‘t hurry up Katsumi will eat them all. You know how she is.“<br/><br/>Saiya nodded at his dad who closed the door behind him.<br/><br/>Saiya threw his legs over the side of the bed.<br/><br/>He found a single black hair tie with a skull on it next ot his bed. He picked it up with a smile as he recongised it.<br/><br/>He‘d have to give it back to Mecredi, next time he‘d see her.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. What‘s a whumpee gotta do to get some sleep around here?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Exhaustion/ Nacrolepsy/ sleep depriviation</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Glynn sighed as he received his order. Tripple shot espresso with an ungodyl amount of sugar and caramel.<br/><br/>It was one of those days.<br/><br/>Glynn hasn‘t been sleeping well lately and the stress from the outside world was pressing down on his bones increasing his chronic pain making everything worse and it was just and endless clyce of stress leading to less sleep leading to more stress leading to less sleep leading to—<br/><br/>„Dimwhit? The fuck happened to you?“<br/><br/>Glynn looked up as the recongised the gravely and familiar voice, „Vitya?“ he called out before he saw the man.<br/><br/>His old aquaintance Vitya stood in the waiting area of the coffee chain, waiting for his order to be done.<br/><br/>“Why the fuck do you look like death incarnate?“ Vitya asked, phone still in his hand but not paid attention to.<br/><br/>Glynn deemed that he probably looked that bad, since he felt it too...<br/><br/>But could he—<br/><br/>Wait, no this was the perfect opportunity if nothing else! Since the whole guardian buinsess was a thing now—<br/><br/>He pulled a confused Vitya aside and talked to him in a low voice.<br/><br/>“It‘s about my mom.“ He whispered.<br/><br/>“Auntie?“ Vitya gasped, before he narrowed his eyes angrily again, „what happened to her?“<br/><br/>“Nothing yet,“ Glynn assued, „but it‘s that— did you read my article last week about CEO of AbbyTV that I exposed for his shady actions?“<br/><br/>“Y— what about it?“<br/><br/>Glynn opened his mouth, and closed it again, how could he...<br/><br/>“He s— he seems to be threatening my mom.“<br/><br/>Vitya‘s eyes shot open. „Auntie?“<br/><br/>Glynn nodded, looking around, before realising that he probably looked super suspicious like that.<br/><br/>“It isn‘t anything direct or or superbad, but an anonymous number sent me her address and a picture of her standing in her kitchen.“<br/><br/>Victor gasped, fury slowly increasing in his face.<br/><br/>“So if you could—„<br/><br/>“If I‘ll do my job as a fucking guardian and investigate the machinations and actions of a high ranking animal in our society getting away with too much stuff while also not making a fuss about it so that you and Auntie will not get in too much further danger and the genuine villains of this world will actually experience consequences for their actions?“<br/><br/>Glynn blinked at Vitya.<br/><br/>Yeah, well, that was it.<br/><br/>That was exactly what he needed, to a T.<br/><br/>He smiled at his associate, maybe even ally at this point.<br/><br/>The description of these actions were precisely what the proposions of ‚guardians‘ had been once hero‘s were removed from the picture. Maybe Glynn could post an article about their machinations from his personal point of view. Once all this was over. They‘d need some sort of example of what guardians did and how they worked, so the general public could understand their purpose, since the job was quite new.<br/><br/>“Thank you, Vitya,“ Glynn beamed, „you are the best!“<br/><br/>“Tcht! Don‘t get any ideas, I‘m doing this for auntie only, I don‘t care of you die.“<br/><br/>Glynn laughed, Vitya hadn‘t changed that much at all.<br/><br/>A number got called out and Vitya turned around to the voice. He picked up a massive amounts of hot drinks for which he was even given a bag.<br/><br/>“What are all these drinks for?“ Glynn asked curiously, spying at the bag in Vitya‘s hand as they left the locale.<br/><br/>“Was in the area for a job and got pressured into getting coffee for the office. They are insatiable these bastards.“ Vitya scoffed.<br/><br/>Glynn smiled, knowing that Vitya was the boss of his own agency and not the type to serve others. He was glad to see this change in nature.<br/><br/>His often neglected survival instinct only barely held him back from saying ‘you softened up‘.<br/><br/>Him and Vitya seperated ways.<br/><br/>“Bye Vitya, greet your people at work from me!“<br/><br/>“I won‘t make any promises, try not to fucking die!“<br/><br/>“I won‘t make any promises!“ Glynn cheered.<br/><br/>He suddenly felt very exhausted.<br/><br/>Not exhausted like he had an hour ago, where all the pressure on his shoulder was making him tired.<br/><br/>He felt differently exhausted, like all the pressure had been removed, and he could sleep for a week to recover from it all.<br/><br/>Glynn sighed, this was just the beginning after all.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. You‘re not making any sense</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Forced Mutism/ Blind-folded/ Sensory depriviation</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Caero burst another door open, „Lux are you in here?“<br/><br/>The final fight had long since been over, and the crew was gathing all their people together to head home.<br/><br/>The only person left was Lux.<br/><br/>“Lux you there?“ Caero almost closed the door again but then he saw him.<br/><br/>Just kneeling on the ground, hands folded in his lap, blinded folded and so calm and collected he seemed almost content. Unlike his usual unruly self, loud and reckless.<br/><br/>“Dude, you coming?“ Caero asked, cauteously, as he approached his friend.<br/><br/>No reaction.<br/><br/>He squatted down in front of his friend.<br/><br/>“Dude?“ He took the blind fold off Lux‘ face. His eyes were closed, „you in there?“ He prodded Lux‘ arm to get a reaction, unsuccessfully.<br/><br/>Whelp, either he was not in there at all and this was some sort of Lux shaped puppet, or he had been derived of all his senses and took a page out of the Belona book of dealing with odd as situations and just... stayed put, hoping not to hurt himself or get a panic attack because neither would be helpful or easy to fix like this.<br/><br/>“Well, let‘s get you to Lucky,“ Caero said, picking his friend up and throwing him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The action got a weird noise out of Lux which Caero briefly laughed at, but then he just made to get back to his crew.<br/><br/>At least they‘d be all together. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I‘m doing a disservice to my boi caero by giving him short as chapters all the time</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. I think I‘ll Collapse right here, Thanks</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Disorientation/ Blurred Vision/ Ringing Ears</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I‘m seeign a reorruicng theme of all my characters jstu being in constant pain and absolutely exhausted</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Glynn locked his apartment door behind him.<br/><br/>He signed. His head as ringing and he felt <em>exhausted</em>and it was hard to focus as the key swam before his eyes.<br/><br/>It had been... a long couple of weeks... He needed a break, indefentiely.<br/><br/>He put his keys into his jacket and walked down the hallway to the elevator of his apartment complex. He stepped inside where there was already a woman in it and went to press the ground floor button but it seemed she had been faster than him.<br/><br/>He sighed again.<br/><br/>Tired.<br/><br/>So tired.<br/><br/>Then he was suddenly awake, very awake.<br/><br/>He looked at the woman next to him.<br/><br/>“Are you...“ the woman looked up form her phone, humming inquisitively, „Rei Elliot?“<br/><br/>She sighed and put her phone away.<br/><br/>“Yeah, I am.“<br/><br/>Despite himself, trying despertely to hold back, he gasped, and let out a lengthly dying squeel.<br/><br/>“Rei Elliot, the youngest Punk rock star of our age, educated at the academy of Yui aiming to be a professional hero but whose Punk Rock band took off so she chose to follow her musical passion more than the heroism!“<br/><br/>Elliot gestured at the all of herself vaguely and said, „in the flesh.“<br/><br/>Glynn breathed deeply, trying very desperately to not lose it.<br/><br/>“I‘m sorry,“ he gasped, „it‘s just...“<br/><br/>“Big fan,“ Elliot said, knowing.<br/><br/>“I mean not necessarily that,“ <em>that‘s just who I am, I try to tone it down</em>, „it somewhat comes with the job,“ he pulled out the press pass that always hang around his neck.<br/><br/>Elliot stepped back from him, but finding nothing but elevator wall behind her.<br/><br/>“No, sorry, sorry,“ Glynn put his pass away and waved her off, „I do the buisness and politics section of The Paper, I‘m not actually after celebrities, no worries.“<br/><br/>“Oh, okay,“ Elliot said, stepping into her previous position again.</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The elevator door clinked open, and they both stepped out.<br/><br/>And walked in the same direction.<br/><br/>Elliot laughed awkwardly. „Seams like we‘re stuck for moment, where are you heading?“ She asked.<br/><br/>“I‘m visiting my mother in the lower levels,“ Glynn provided, „so I‘m heading for the level Elevator.“<br/><br/>Elliot made big eyes at him. „I‘m visiting... friends, so I‘m going there too since I have to go a few levels up.“<br/><br/>“Oh then we‘re going in the same direction!“ Glynn beamed, before he caught himself, „sorry, I can make things weird, I can stay back if you like!“<br/><br/>Elliot laughed though, „I don‘t mind, I like weird people,“ she stuffed her hands in the pockets of her jacket as they crossed a road, „what are you visiting your mother for?“<br/><br/>“I instigated an investigation against the CEO of AbbyTV. For the sake of her own savety she was in a safe house before, but the investigation is over now and I can visit her now.“<br/><br/>Elliot made REALLY big eyes at him then.<br/><br/>“I heard about that, you‘re that noisy reporter that keeps getting in trouble.“<br/><br/>“That‘s me,“ Glynn said, giggling awkwardly, and quickly jumping back to not run into a group of kids running in his way. „Vitya did the investigation, so that should be how you heard of it.“<br/><br/>“Vit— you know Victor Belona?“<br/><br/>“We— we were neighbours back in the day, and we were always in the same class up until high school.“<br/><br/>“So friends then.“<br/><br/>“Not necessarily.“<br/><br/>Glynn clenched his hands into fists. He really wished they were. He had admired Vitya back in the day, still did. But more than necessarily healthy. And Vitya‘s unhealthy coping mechansim was to beat the shit out of Glynn in retaliation, calling him a perv and a stalker.<br/><br/>It wasn‘t necessarily the best situation for either side.<br/><br/>It certainly was good for Glynn‘s body when they decided to go to different schools, since Yui didn‘t offer a journalism program and Vitya wanted to be a hero, but Glynn missed him nonetheless, violence and curses and all.<br/><br/>They crossed another street.<br/><br/>Elliot hummed aknowledgingly, narrowly avoiding a cyclist.<br/><br/>“I think your mother was in Victor‘s office for the safe house time.“<br/><br/>Glynn turned around to her, „that‘s where she was?“<br/><br/>Elliot hummed.<br/><br/>“Well I think so, Belona has been acting weird in the group chat lately. Well, less him and more everyone else.“<br/><br/>Glynn lost control and took Elliot‘s hand in his own. „The Belona agency has a group chat?“<br/><br/>“Uh,“ Elliot responded, startled, „yes?“<br/><br/>“And you‘re still in it despire no longer offially being part of the agency?“<br/><br/>“Yes?“ Elliot stuttered out.<br/><br/>Glynn‘s fingers itched to take physical note of this, but he tried to be better, to not apply his stalker tendencies <em>everywhere</em>. He pulled his hands back. They arrived at the big elevators that went all the way up and down the Abyss. It would take a while for an elevator to reach them.<br/><br/>“Are you concerned about your mother?“ Elliot asked then.<br/><br/>“Hm?“ Glynn responded, not entirely certain what exactly she meant.<br/><br/>“Since you‘re known for your snoopy nose, and it has gotten her in danger before, evidently, are you concerned about her health and safety? Or anyone else‘s?“<br/><br/>“Hm,“ Glynn pondered, looking on ahead, „I mean, I sure am concered, but that doesn‘t mean I can just stop, you know?“<br/><br/>A loud honk and some yelling from the street behind them startled Glynn out of his train of thought, but nothing bad had happened at it wasn‘t directed at him so he went back to his conversation.<br/><br/>“I see it everyday at work. When someone show‘s off that they have been paid to not report on something or report something positive about it, or when my boss says that I shouldn‘t cover cerain stories or at least not the inquisitive way I would because of the repurcussions that come from it, but,“ he shrugged, not entirley sure of his wording, „it‘s exactly that that keeps me going. Stories that are dangerous to report, or straight up unpopular because they are not sensational, I don‘t know, those need to be featured especially,“ he looked at Elliot, „you know?“<br/><br/>Elliot smirked at him.<br/><br/>“I see why Belona respects you now.“<br/><br/>Glynn startled, „he does what?“<br/><br/>“He talked about a snoopy nosed resporter before. Wait no, he used some sort of other wording,“ she held her chin contemplatively as she tried to remember, „‚some stalker with a pay check‘, where his exact words actually, I think.“<br/><br/>Glynn sighed, „yeah, that sounds more like Vitya.“ Then he straighed up, a train shot past them, stopping to a halt not too far away, the elevators could not take too much longer. „What about you, Elliot? You‘ve gotten pretty big, usually artists you‘re size move to the upper levels, away from the press.“<br/><br/>Elliot sighed.<br/><br/>“You got me. I never even really considered getting big enough that I <em>didn‘t</em> want to live in the art and press level of the Abyss, but it has become a pain. I‘ll move to the top layer by the end of the month.“ She leaned closer to him. „But don‘t tell any of your journalist buddies, I think it‘ll be hilarious if they can‘t find me for a while.“<br/><br/>Glynn mimed locking his mouth. He wasn‘t too fond of most of his insincere work colleagues, so he was down with playing a little prank on them.<br/><br/>It got busy around them, the people from the train joining them in the waiting area for the elevators.<br/><br/>Glynn looked up, estemiating what was in the layers over them that Elliot may want to go to.<br/><br/>“You said you were visiting friends, you mean Vitya and his troupe, right? You are still quite close and the He— Guardian angecies are five levels higher from here.“<br/><br/>“I—„ Elliot blinked at him, „Yes. You are very perceptive, snoopy little journalist.“<br/><br/>“I know,“ Glynn said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly, „It‘s my greatest downfall.“<br/><br/>The elevators arrived, one going up and one going down. A rare occurrence. They slowly filled with people.<br/><br/>“Well then,“ Elliot said, „I wish you good luck with your mother.“ She waved at him as she left.<br/><br/>“I wish you good luck with your move!“ He called back, getting into his own elevator with the sea of people.<br/><br/>It was a shame, honestly. She seemed cool and willing to talk to him, he almost felt like he had made a friend, the first real one since—<br/><br/>An embarrassingly long time...<br/><br/>Too bad she were to move away.<br/><br/>Glynn’s mother lived in the lower layers of the Abyss, whereas Glynn lived closer to the middle, so he‘d have quite a way down.<br/><br/>They passed the storage part at the very center of the Abyss. Easily the most boring part of the Abyss, but located here to make transport the easiest.<br/><br/>Next they passed the clubbing scene, easily at home beneath the grunge of the boring storage unit, a stark contrast in terms of visual entertainement. And entertainement most of all.<br/><br/>The academic scene, which student everywhere celebrated because the way to get trashed and going back home wasn‘t too far.<br/><br/>Legal issues, house of politics, anything where you had to get papers or bring a lawyer. Vitya must come here a lot since he got into fisticuffs with the law frequently. Warm shivers overcame Glynn as he imagined how often an elevator with Vitya in it passed by Glynn‘s layer.<br/><br/>The foodie scene. There was grocers and restaurants in every layer of the Abyss, but none as defined and active as here.<br/><br/>Primary and middle schools, kindergartens and crips. His exit.<br/><br/>Here was where him and Vitya had grown up, presumably most other people as well, although further east or west, but Glynn‘s childhood home and his schools were not far from here.<br/><br/>He greeted a parent in passing that lived in the same street as him and recognised him.<br/><br/>He passed by a grocer and considered stopping because they had avacado‘s and he hadn‘t had avocado‘s in a while and he could bring some—<br/><br/>Some kind on bikes honked at him and almost ran him over.<br/><br/>He passed a dog that was excited to see him. He stopped to give him a quick pat.<br/><br/>He reached his mother‘s apartment complex.<br/><br/>He rang her doorbell and she let him in and he breathed.<br/><br/>He breahted a little lighter, having heard her voice after all these weeks, knowing she was okay.<br/><br/>The exhaustion came back.<br/><br/>He walked up five flights of stairs and reached the apartment he had known all his life.<br/><br/>His mother opened the door.<br/><br/>“Oh, Glynn my darling,“ she fell around his neck and he hugged her tight. He had missed her.<br/><br/>“Hey mom,“ he hugged her tighter. He felt like he hadn‘t hugged her in ages. Usually he would visit her every week to check on her and eat her food to feel at home, but these last few weeks he had not known where she was, not been able to communicate with her. It had been weighing on him.<br/><br/>He felt small.<br/><br/>And weak.<br/><br/>Well he wasn‘t much taller than his mother, and he was much more slender and bonier than he would like to. He didn‘t have the time to work out much and he didn‘t eat as regularly as he would like.<br/><br/>“I hear Vitya took care of you,“ he said, pulled back now, and being led into the apartment.<br/><br/>“He did,“ his mother said, leaning down quickly to keep one of her cats from escaping through the apartment door, meowing in protest at being picked up and not let out, „he kept asking for my spicy curry recipe, I said he‘d have to become part of the family to get that.“<br/><br/>Glynn realised the connotations as he hang up his jacket.<br/><br/>“Oh god, mom,“ he hid his blushing face in his hands, „he has a boyfriend, oh my god!“<br/><br/>“He does, an open relationship with a very nice young man,“ his mother cheered, walking further into the apartment and letting the cat down.<br/><br/>She beamed.<br/><br/>“It is good to be home,“ she said, softly, with a genuine smile on her face. „Can I make you a tea or anything.<br/><br/>“Not necessary,“ Glynn said exhaustion and stress crushing down on him again, vision getting unsteady and ringing in his brain coming back, sofa with two cats on it looking more and more inviting by the second, „I think I‘ll crash right here, thanks.“<br/><br/>The last thing he heard was the gigging of his mother, save and sound.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I should hoenstly do sum art to depict waht the actual world looks like. Like technially ihave sum bigger shots but also like i wouldn‘T quite know where to fit them?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. If you thought the head trauma was bad....</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Migrane/ Concussion/ Blindness</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Alright, she got him! With that final hit Stacy got a good blow at the attacker!<br/><br/>Except that fucktard wouldn‘t go down like a decent man and instead chose to blow up in her face in an explosion of truly disgusting smelling goo and an impressive shockwave that threw her several feet backwards.<br/><br/>Into rubble.<br/><br/>On top of something that was very unfortunately placed.<br/><br/>She heard something akin to a crack and felt a mind numbing pain curse through her entire body, ringing back in her brain and making her so overwhlemed she had the urge to throw up.<br/><br/>“Stace, oh my god, are you okay?!“ Stacy tried to open her eyes into the direction of Louie‘s voice but failed to do so.<br/><br/>“Could be worse,“ she said out of reflex.<br/><br/>She tried to move, but it didn‘t quite work.<br/><br/>“That was quite a blow, how are you feeling?“ Louie‘s voice sounded close now, and concerned, Stacy tried to look at her again, but failed.<br/><br/>“It hurts,“ Stacy wheezed out, „fuck, it hurts... and I can‘t see.“ She tried to move again, but in all honesty she could not tell if it was possible.<br/><br/>“Fuck, okay I— Stacy, you‘re bleeding...“ <em>Where</em>? Stacy wanted to ask, but there words died in her throat. „I‘ll call first aid, don‘t move.“ <em>I won‘t</em>, Stacy tried to joke, but the words wouldn‘t leave her lips.<br/><br/>She overheared vaguely how Louie described the situation and their location on the phone, but the pain in her body distracted her.<br/><br/>She activated her trait, the active exctacy coursing through her body numbed her pain, it was easier to handle.<br/><br/>She still couldn‘t see.<br/><br/>And she still couldn‘t tell if she was able to move.<br/><br/>“All right, they are on the way,“ Louie said, returning back to her side, „they told me not to move you, so lay down. Have you activated your trait?“<br/><br/>Stacy tried to nod, but it was hard, so she just croaked out a „yes.“<br/><br/>There was a mere moment of uncomfortable silence, amplified in it‘s discomfort by the ever rising pain in Stacy‘s body that she could now concentrate on since there was no further distractions.<br/><br/>“So can yo actually smell that guy? He smells like vomit.“ <br/><br/>God, bless Louie and her mindless distractions!<br/><br/>“God yeah, it‘s disgusting.“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Do you think he was just, made of vomit? Just some sort of barely human shaped balloon filled with vomit that just exploded?“<br/><br/>Stacy laughed, despite the pain and the struggle, and she heard Louie‘s giggle too.<br/><br/>“He certainly acted like he was full of shit too.“ Good good, she could make actual jokes again, and Louie was out right laughing now.<br/><br/>“Thanks for saving me, by the way,“ Louie said, „you‘re my hero~“<br/><br/>“Anything for my favourite state council member,“ Stacy wheezed, sudden pain shooting through her, before it went over into the generalised regular pain.<br/><br/>Another moment of silence, Louie presumably looking for a distracting topic to think about. Stacy was just glad she wouldn‘t have to go through this herself. Unmoving, blind, and in pain alone until rescue came would have driven her crazy!<br/><br/>“You think this was a regular mugging? Or did he attack me because I‘m from the state council?“<br/><br/>“I don‘t know,“ Stacy said, honestly, „I didn‘t recognise him, and I really didn‘t get a chance to talk to him either.“<br/><br/>“I know, I know,“ Louie said, „I didn‘t recognise him either.“ Then she sighed, like a tired person, absolutely done with all this. „I knew being in politics with an antagonising nature and intend would be dangerous and difficult, but I swear I‘ll need a personal body guard at this point.“<br/><br/>“We are always for hire, as you know,“ Stacy tried to salute, but realised she had struggle moving her arms.<br/><br/>“Dawww, babe,“ Louie said in that flirtatious tone of her‘s, „I accept.“<br/><br/>Wait a—<br/><br/>„Don‘t you have a girlfriend that works as a guardian? Shouldn‘t you be asking her?“<br/><br/>„I probably should,“ Louie grumbled, and Stacy could see the childish pout on her in her inner eye, „her agency always does these long as undercover missions, I haven‘t seen her in three months.“ A stretch of silence. „I miss her...“<br/><br/>A blaring alarm rang through their area, amplifying Stacy‘s migrane and she groaned at the increased pain.<br/><br/>„Over here!“ Louie yelled, not helping Stacy in the slightest.<br/><br/>She vaguely heard Louie state the situation and eveything that had happened to the first responders, but the pain that came and vent with being moved.<br/><br/>“She is in pain and she can‘t see and as far as I can tell she sturggles to move but she is still onto it and could talk like normal.“<br/><br/>Stacy could feel something under her move like she was being transported and presumably stored away in the ambulance.<br/><br/>“Her name is Stacy Merck, she is a guardian so she should have some form of ID on her that should give you details on medical help she needs. She has an exctacy blood mutation so don‘t transfuse her blood, give her any form of drug.“<br/><br/>Stacy vaguely registered as things were being attached to, and into her, but she tried to concentrate on Louie‘s voice to distract from the pain she was feeling.<br/><br/>“Uh,“ a male voice said, presumably one of the first responders, „some sort of— we have opium?“<br/><br/>“That should work!“<br/><br/>Stacy breathed deeply. She would be fine, everything would be fine.<br/><br/>“Do you want to come with? Are you a relative?“<br/><br/>“No, we are just friends, but take good care of her.“<br/><br/>“We will.“ The male responder said, and Stacy heard as the van door was closed and the ambulance started driving.<br/><br/>“Alright, Stacy Merck,“ the male responder said, „you friend said you can still talk like normal, can you talk for us?“<br/><br/>Stacy had to really concentrate but she wheezed out an, „I can.“</span>
</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„Good, good,“ the responder said, „can you tell us where it hurts the most?“<br/><br/>“It hurts eveywhere,“ Stacy pressed out, „hurts the most in the brain, but it feels like stab in entire body. Can‘t see, try to move, dunno if it works.“<br/><br/>“Alright,“ the responder said, „that‘s good enough for now. Well get you fixed up, no worries.“<br/><br/>It was far from the first time Stacy had been in an ambulance with heavy injuries, and it would be far form the last. So she gave herself over to the responders, let the pain be what it was, and concentrated on the little noises and happenings she could hear them do.<br/><br/>She trusted they would do their job.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Don‘t write yourself into your fckn written works its fckn weird</p><p>Also shoud out to my girl tan tan who let herself be written into my world as my girlfriend that i rarely see (as in irl rip me loenly gay heart) and in the oroginal script only came up bc my character was hitting on stacy and stacy called me out on beign disloyal</p><p>There is also a comic out there and by that i mean in a discord server where i thirst for stacy on main but victor calls me out for being disloyal so idk how yall write urself into ur works but holy fork and spoon idk if this is the bpeak way</p><p>Tan tan is excited tho even if she is only mentioned and only bc i am gay for people other than her</p><p>I mean i am also gay for her but—</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0027"><h2>27. Okay, who had natural desasters on theri 2020 bingo card?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Earthquakes/ Extrem Weather/ Power Outage</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><strong>[„It seems that a group of shrecks are attacking the city, any issues with loud roars, water issues or power outage should be associated back to them. The Inferno Guardian Agency is dealing with the attack, we will keep you updated as the events unfold.“]</strong><br/><br/>Victor stood by his TV, seven months after the introduction of the new reforms and vocabulary the generalised media had finally climatised to the new scene they were trying to set.<br/><br/>Sure, media everywhere would certainly be upset to not be able to talk about „villains“ and „heroes“ anymore, but this would be better in the long run.<br/><br/>Lime green, illuminous fluid splattered against the glass wall of the Belona living room that looked down into the Abyss.<br/><br/>“Dad?“ Katsumi said, voice smaller than Victor was used to, „are you and Papa going to go out and fight as well?“<br/><br/>The Inferno Agency was dealing with the attack. While the Inferno family was all sorts of disfunctional in their private lives, they nontheless worked wonders in the field.<br/><br/>A loud roar from the outside echoed through the living room, Victor and Katsumi looked through the glass wall outside, where there was only the lime green, illuminous splatter, and uncharacteristic absolute darkness.<br/><br/>Usually they could look into the endless depth and colourful life of the Abyss, but it seemed they could view none of that due to the Shreck Attack.<br/><br/>“Eh, the Inferno Agency got it covered, they don‘t need our help.“<br/><br/>Just then, everything illuminated very brightly, before all the lights went out.<br/><br/>Darkness, just darkness, save for the luminous splatter of whatever fluid rained against the living room wall.<br/><br/>Victor illuminated his own face with explosions from his hand, „wanna get the camping gear and ask if the others wanna make hot chocolate from scratch?“<br/><br/>„FUCK YEAH!“ Katsumi cheered, profane as she was, running ahead into the all consuming darkness of the kitchen, possibly running into a wall in her lack of care.<br/><br/>The Belona Guardian Agency would probably have to help with the clean up later, but for now Victor would just enjoy being a married husband and father of three.<br/><br/>A delightful little life to have.</span>
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<a name="section0028"><h2>28. Such Wow. Many Normal. Very Oops.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Accidents/ Hunting season/ Mugged</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Someone ran into Theo.<br/><br/>Usually he didn‘t mind when they did, it was presumably a mistake and no bad harm, but Theo‘s bad day must be weighing on him because the next thing he knew a strange man was pushed to the ground by him, whimpering for mercy and whining pathetically.<br/><br/>“It was for a dare, I promise, I promise!“ The strange man whimpered, Theo‘s wallet in his hand.<br/><br/>“No harm done,“ Theo said, getting up again, taking his wallet, „don‘t do it again.“<br/><br/>Theo pocketed his wallet as the man got up as well, he dusted himself off before something in Theo‘s face caught his eye.<br/><br/>“That scar...“ the man said, „you are Theodor Brava.“<br/><br/>Theo held back a sigh. He didn‘t have the best of days, or weeks really, and had just wanted to get something from the store so he could wallow in misery for the rest of the day.<br/><br/>Usually it was the bright red hair, reaching down to his hips that tipped people off, and usually he was social and chipper and eager to interact with the general public. But he had an off day and wasn‘t really feeling it and had put on a hoodie to hide his identity a bit. Sue him.<br/><br/>But this man had recognised him by his scar, reaching over his right eye up into his hair. A mutation issue from when he had just been a kid.<br/><br/>Well, he could deal with <em>one</em> fan and not die.<br/><br/>“You have a dragon mutation, don‘t you? Oh you‘re skin is going to be worth so much!“<br/><br/>Wait what?<br/><br/>Then he saw sharp fangs.<br/><br/>And then not anything at all.<br/><br/>—————<br/><br/>Theo woke up surrounded by darkness and utterly disorineted.<br/><br/>There was yelling outside.<br/><br/>“Listen man, you came out of fucking nowhere, I didn‘t see you, I am sorry!“<br/><br/>“YOU DIRTY USELESS YOUTH ARE GOING TO KILL ME SOME DAY!!“<br/><br/>“Look, it‘s a dark section, this could happen to anyone.“<br/><br/>“I CAN BARELY STAND ON MY LEGS!!“<br/><br/>“You are exaggerating!“<br/><br/>Theo was sagging out of whatever constraption he was strapped to. There was a pounding in his head that made it hard to orientate himself, but the world certainly felt tilted.<br/><br/>“Listen man, car support is gonna be here any minute—„<br/><br/>“I‘LL GET MY LAWYER AND I‘LL RUN YOU DRY YOU CHILDREN’S CHILDREN WILL BE PAYING ME MONEY!“<br/><br/>“I mean, I don‘t have any kids, but okay.“<br/><br/>Theo tried to tranforms but it wouldn‘t work. He must have some sort of trait suppressors intus.<br/><br/>He tried to get out of his constraints with human force and found one sections losened.<br/><br/>“Listen man, I‘m sorry your car got totalled but—„ Theo fell loudly to the ground as he freed himself. It seemed like he was in some sort of metal container, like a tin box almost, „—what was that?“<br/><br/>“My cargo,“ the other voice growled.<br/><br/>“You got people in there or something?“<br/><br/>“No,“ another growl.<br/><br/>Theo got up as much as he could, there was still a migrane in him making his life hard and the ground beneath him was unsteady.<br/><br/>He held tigth onto the metal wall in front of him and presumed that he would get out there one way or another.<br/><br/>He banged against the wall.<br/><br/>„Dude what he FUCK did you carry?!“<br/><br/>“NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!“<br/><br/>“I DISAGREE!!“<br/><br/>Theo banged against the wall again, using the pouding of his brain to fuel into force of anger.<br/><br/>„Dude are you carrying an alien attacking earth or—„<br/><br/>Theo managed to rip a hole into his containment, bright light streamed inside, made his eyes water with its force, but he was glad to see that the walls were as easy to rip apart as the tin lightness made it out ot be.<br/><br/>“Dude we‘re gonna die!! We‘re gonna— Theo?“<br/><br/>The light form the outside was blinding him and worsening his head ache.<br/><br/>“Lux? What are you doing here?“<br/><br/>“I ran into this guy‘s car— what are YOU doing here?“<br/><br/>Theo could see better, there was a bulky and angry man standing next to Lux Susanowo, looking angry and uncertain of what to do next.<br/><br/>“Got kidnapped to get my skin sold,“ Theo said, before he had any way to decide what to do Lux tackled the driver to the ground, and big lights illuminated the increasibly darker street, Theo turned around to see the pick up services to check on their cars, he waved them over.</span>
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  </div></div>
<a name="section0029"><h2>29. I think I need a Doctor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Intubation/ Emergency Room/ Reluctant Bedrest</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p2">
  <span class="s2">Glynn shot up in bed.<br/><br/>Mom!<br/><br/>Jeremy Silinger!<br/><br/>Purple poison gas that—<br/><br/>„Welcome back to the land of the living,“ a strange woman with a big grin on her face said, sitting on his bed.<br/><br/>He was in a hospital bed, he could hear the rapid beat of a heart rate monitor.<br/><br/>His own heart rate monitor.<br/><br/>He had to get to his mom, had to save her had too—<br/><br/>„Woah, woah, whoa there buddy,“ the woman said, reaching over to keep him from pulling tubes out of his arms, „everything is okay, please don‘t hurt yourself any further.“<br/><br/>He tired to fight her grip, but his body was overwhelmed with the addrenalin and shaking too much.<br/><br/>“I need to get to my mom, I need to—„<br/><br/>“Your mom is cared for,“ the woman said, Glynn looked at her, „Victor took her of her.“<br/><br/>Vitya?<br/><br/>Glynn calmed down.<br/><br/>His head was still spinning and he was full of questions but first and foremost...<br/><br/>Vitya had taken care of his mom.<br/><br/>“Where is she?“<br/><br/>“Somewhere save.“<br/><br/>Probably at Vitya‘s agency again, charming his crew and making him angry when he would have to send her home eventually and everyone would be sad to see her gone again and whine at him for two weeks like last time.<br/><br/>Glynn sighed.<br/><br/>“But what about the future, what if—„<br/><br/>“We already covered that, she works for me as of now.“<br/><br/>Glynn‘s head was just spinning more and more.<br/><br/>He looked at the woman.<br/><br/>“Working for...“ Brown hair, black ram horns, big eyes and a young face, she wore a tight costume with a short skirt, „you‘re from the city council, Louie Eidenborough.“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  
</p><p class="p2">
  <span class="s2">„As of last week,“ she cheered, „at your service!“<br/><br/>The youngest city council member was hiring his mom to protect her to—<br/><br/>„Doesn‘t— doesn‘t your research team need like... librarians and college professors and research profissionals like that? My mom is a primariy school teacher.“<br/><br/>Eidenborough sighed, leaning back, looking at the ceiling, seemingly more somber.<br/><br/>“It is not only about the fact that I need a research team, now that I have my own office, it is also about protecting your mother, and it is just easier to have an eye on her when she is right under my nose.“ She turned around to him with a wicked grin. „And if she works under <em>me</em> it doesn‘t look as much as if Victor is keeping and eye on her. She seems almost unsupervised but she isn‘t really. And if it‘s a real job offer, because I need researchers, then it also doesn‘t look like we are taking up drastic measures. At least on the outside.“<br/><br/>She leaned over to him making a scissoring motion with her fingers.<br/><br/>“The perks of a network.“<br/><br/>Glynn nodded, if Victor was working the case and trusted this person then he would trust her too, his mother would be fine.<br/><br/>“Rice is also looking into the case to defend your mother in court. Victor really needs tohire more lawyers, poor Rice ought to be worn down at this point.“<br/><br/>Glynn leaned back into his bed, pulling the blanked up over his chest.<br/><br/>His bones were hurting and his muscles ached, everything felt too much.<br/><br/>But he indulged in it, for a moment, because everyone else was dealing with his problems.<br/><br/>“Good night, Glynn Fern. I have to go back to work, but promise me not to do anything rash.“</span>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p2"><span class="s2">He mumbled a ‚I promise nothing‘ back at her but couldn‘t tell if she‘d understand.</span><br/><br/>Then there was black.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Best review so fae</p><p>Freind: „is his name really Glynn Fern?“</p><p>Me: „yeah, i was looking for dumbass names that mean ‚green‘ and i stuck with this bc it makes me laugh“</p><p>Frined: „i lvoe it!“</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0030"><h2>30. Now where did That come from?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Wound Reveal/ Ignoring an Injury/ Internal Organ injury</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">„How are you holding up?“ Theo wheezed, dust settling around them, defenitely broke rips making every breath hard.<br/><br/>“Eh, still standing,“ Stacy wheezed out, lifting her arm to reveal a hole in her waist, flood flowing out of it, „to be honest with my trait active I can barely feel it.“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"><br/>Theo wanted to laugh at her final breath‘s humor, but he had his hands full with the attempt to breathe himself.<br/><br/>“ARE YOU GUYS FUCKING IDIOTS YOU CAN‘T JUST CHARGE IN LIKE THAT, SUICIDAL MANIACS!“<br/><br/>Theo would have flinched at Caero appearing out of no where to yell at them, but the pain in his body was getting more prominent by the second and he honestly just tried to stay upright.<br/><br/>Caero investigated Stacy‘s wound, muttering about her recklessnes and punch-first brain-second tendencies and Stacy just grinned at him in turn.<br/><br/>Theo let himself fall on his butt.<br/><br/>It was over. The job was done, the big bad defeated, technically speaking medical help was there and everything going from here was just paper work and legalities.<br/><br/>Theo looked over to where Caero was patching Stacy up to distract from his own pain.<br/><br/>Caero was a lot more careful than the rest of them, so more often than not he ended being the last one standing, and had consequently over the course of the last few years of working together picked up a lot of field medecine to save their lives in the aftermath.<br/><br/>Theo sighed, he fell back onto the ground, starfishing on the cold tiles beneath him, closing his eyes, letting exhaustion and take over his body.<br/><br/>“Oh no my dude, you are not leaving me here. If I let you fucking die in the field Victor will have my neck and I will make the afterlife hell for you.“<br/><br/>Theo actually laughed at that, despite the pain.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ngl this is hilarious i am proud of it</p><p>Next is a lil longer and a lil more angsty</p><p>I promise to never take angst seriously or let it win though</p><p>Even if that is the opposite purpose of whumptober...</p></blockquote></div></div>
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